Is it Ethical to Breed Bearded Dragons?

[JackReacher]

I figure sure, they breed in the wild. As long as you can meet ALL requirements necessary.

[ladyknite]

Requirements are specifically identified by what each and every breeder feels necessary.  That's not always a good thing.
The cost of breeding, hatching and raising babies for 6 weeks is quite high if you do it right.  Instincts of success tell the breeder to recoup that monetary expense thru sales.  Doing that, you realize you don't really make as much as you originally thought.  This is why so many turn to inbreeding, line breeding, and selling stock that is less than "par". 
Red Ink Aus was very correct in saying that money and ethics cannot ride together.
It doesn't much matter what happens in the wild if we just corrupt it in captivity.

[JackReacher]

Red Ink Aus was very correct in saying that money and ethics cannot ride together.

And yet governments exist.

[BoogiesMom]

Red Ink Aus was very correct in saying that money and ethics cannot ride together.

And yet governments exist.

LOL!!!!! 

[Red Ink AUS]

It is unethical to breed when:

You can not take care of the offspring until due time where they can leave your care whether you are selling them or giving them away for free.

A breeder breeds two obviously genetically deficient or unhealthy dragons

A breeder breeds females at an early age

It is not unethical to breed for money, BDs like it or not are a commodity. It is however unethical to exploit this commodity to the detriment of the specimens.

It is not unethical to breed for morphs, leatherbacks, silkback, hypos or any other morphs provided the process does not put the animals in harm or is detrimental to their health. This is simply providing a need in the morph crazy market over there.

I stand by my statements that when you mix money and ethics, this often leads to unethical decisions.

[Metal_Gman]

Well, the main problem with that... people often put the exact same value on an animal, that they pay for it.  Too often people who get a pet for free, see it as expendable.  The purchase price of a pet is by far the cheapest part.  If they can't afford to buy it, they can't afford to take care of it.  Now, this is just statistics.  I'm not saying it ALWAYS happens this way.  You just have to be very careful when giving away 20 living beings, that you put on this earth, for free.  I know I'd have a hard time worrying at night.

The sad reality of pets in general, not just bearded dragons. Is people buy them ill prepared for whats to come, pet stores don't have sufficient regulation to ensure people are entirely informed about every detail they need to know.

Take the two beardies my partner and I have for example; a 7mo Male and a 4mo female. What you don't know till you buy & start looking after them is; the real cost of food, the real cost of the viv+necessary equipment, the cost of bulb replacements every 6 months, the cost of supplements & medicines, the cost of an exotic vet should it become necessary. And they definately don't prepare you for learning how to see signs of indigestion/impaction (Crickets slightly too big or beardie was a bit of a pig) and other minor health issues if left unchecked would become major problems. Despite all of this and being ill prepared by pet stores, I absolutely love both the beardies we have. I'd do everything and anything to keep them in tip top health including sell a kidney or cornea if it came to it.

The hardest thing for a breeder who trully does breed for the love of the species, to better protect it and make aware those who wish to experience the joys of beardie ownership what they're getting themselves into, is to make sure the beardie they sell is treated correctly. So Ethical? Yes, of course if your doing it for all the right reasons. Is it possible to ensure ethical treatment of the beardies you sell? Nope, not until real regulation of the pet industry begins to exist.

[Tam85]

Of course you have to be careful when giving away animals and even selling. But a person who loves these animals and the hobby I'm sure they go out of their way to make sure the people who get the babies are good people. Also if a person really is into the animals and hobby they would make sure their animals have something worth while to pass on to future generations (be it looks or health or both) so all in all it would be to improve the breed. There will always be that risk of them going to a bad home but unfortunately there is no way of preventing that. Also just because a person gets an animal for free doesn't necessarily mean they can't take care of it either. People like to save money on certain things so they can spend more on other things for example: Free dragon means more money to spend on a nice cage or supplies. This is just my opinion

Yep, that sounds about right. i have now come to my conclusion in my project, and said that its ethical as long as the human makes it so for both the adults an babies, both before and after they are born. If you are just going to give them to people who could know absolutely nothing about the breed and how to care for it, they could be treated badly after they leave you. Therefore they could have ended up better off not having been born in the first place, so i am not on the part of the project I am physically making it ethical, and im asking people now how to make sure that im selling/giving the babies to the right people. You gotta ask the right questions...however, what are the right questions? Any ideas?

[Tam85]

Red Ink Aus was very correct in saying that money and ethics cannot ride together.

And yet governments exist.

Ha! You can hardly call Government ethical! They are more like wannabes!

[julesfamily]

You gotta ask the right questions...however, what are the right questions? Any ideas?

Have them fill out an "adoption application" outlining the acceptable husbandry of a bearded dragon.  They sign that they understand and agree to provide proper care.  They also give you their address, phone number and 3 references, one of them being their vet.  CHECK REFERENCES!  Include in the application that you have 'first right of refusal', which means that if at any time, for what ever reason, they cannot provide acceptable care, they will notify you and offer to give the animal back to you for what they paid for it.

If they balk at the simple requests above, it's a good sign that you might want to move on.

[beardielover17]

While I do like your idea julesfamiliy, there is one issue I can see. Who's to say what is acceptable husbandry and what's not? I can tell you right now my practices don't completely adhere to the care sheet (which I originally wrote). What some may deem as acceptable others may not which is where problems start. I think a basic idea of husbandry is all you can get to consider proper. For example: enclosure size must provide enough room for lizard to turn around without it bending spine, length must be at least a foot longer than the length of the lizard, height must be atleast a foot  higher than the lizard is long, food and water must be offered daily, UVB must be offered and a source of heat. You really can't even get specific on temps or uvb brand I would think.