Animal Cruelty?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1STOyZNNtPo&feature=fvw

The man in the video has several sets of triplets and twins in his clutch, but he sort of tears them out of their eggs, instead of naturally letting them make their way out. Is this natural? Seems like a total no-no to me.

It probably doesn't do a whole lot to the snakes (other than stress), but I certainly wouldn't do it. And it makes me a little sick to watch a "professional breeder" do it. =/

Not to mention his voice is horribly grating.

I think it does more than just stress them. If they're not ready he may be breaking their umbilical cords, thereby cutting off their nourishment from the yolk. This would be especially important because with two or three snakes in each egg, they're probably not getting as much as they should. Could lead to infection and a weak snake susceptible to many different ailments. Notice he mentions that his last clutch with " triplets we lost one".
You'll see it's pretty common to cut BP eggs on a certain day ( 52?) as well, I just don't understand how you can raise a snake, put it through all the pre and post breeding, laying, incubating and just can't wait those few extra days for the snakes to come out naturally?

Originally Posted by ForkedTung

I think it does more than just stress them. If they're not ready he may be breaking their umbilical cords, thereby cutting off their nourishment from the yolk. This would be especially important because with two or three snakes in each egg, they're probably not getting as much as they should. Could lead to infection and a weak snake susceptible to many different ailments. Notice he mentions that his last clutch with " triplets we lost one".
You'll see it's pretty common to cut BP eggs on a certain day ( 52?) as well, I just don't understand how you can raise a snake, put it through all the pre and post breeding, laying, incubating and just can't wait those few extra days for the snakes to come out naturally?

Ah, I don't know how that part slipped my mind. Breaking umbilical cords and the like must not be as easy as what he's doing with those snakes if he hasn't had enough deaths to stop it, but I could definitely see it happening.

The video is affiliated with the website http://www.prehistoricpets.com

Jay Brewer runs prehistoric pets here in SoCal
and has been a sucessful Retic and Rock Python breeder
for quite some time. I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

He may know what he is doing but that simply is not right. As said above. For the extra few days it may take, just leave them alone!

Also look when he pulls them out, theyre hardly moving. Coming out of the egg on their own is a natural process to build up strength! If they havent come out it means they're not ready. All the literature in the world says leave them alone!!!

Sure, but only if the whole thing wasn't staged to begin with.