I understand that in some headcanons fluffies have never become an ecological problem, but in those that have, what would be the reason that sterilization is not mandatory? It is illogical that they are a pest that invades the ecosystem, but anyone can buy one and then abandon it and it becomes a public health problem.
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The government secretly enjoys the fluffy crisis as it keeps everyone’s minds off of whatever the government is doing, giving them more freedom than ever before. Embezzlement? Someone killing the opposing candidates? No we totally have an answer for- LOOK OUT FLUFFIES IN YOUR GARDEN RIGHT NOW! GO PROTECT YOUR CROPS!
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I dont know
Because it makes them money
Feral disposal is a lucrative business, breeders will need to buy land, materials and produce in order to build up an inventory, even people who adopt or buy store bought Fluffies, or just pick up ferals off the street, will have to buy food, toys and commodities to keep the Fluffy alive. Then do it all again plus more when they inevitably shit out more Fluffies.
It’s a goddamn cash cow and the Government knows they can unofficially tax Fluffies by having everything about them be for sale.
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I like to think they do, in the same way that cats and dogs are mandated to be sterilized. It’s law for any shelter or pet store, but that doesn’t mean that intact fluffies aren’t sold. Ferals are hard to catch and TNR just doesn’t work on fluffies. Anyone can call themselves a breeder and get the paperwork to prove it with a small fee. It’s too complex of an issue to be solved with a simple law.
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Why make it a law when people already do it compulsively? All jokes aside in my general head cannon most decently run fluffmarts sell all fluffies sterilized and if you want a fertile one, you have to go through a vetting process to be sure you’re not letting an ecological pest into the wild. The shadier one’s do the whole grab a feral, breed the hell out of it and just sell off as many decent foals as possible to who the hell ever. But that’s why main line store bought are so pricey, well raised, well fed and medically cared for compared to the crap shoot from the underground markets.
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Like fluffies would be able to actually live long enough to become a major threat
That’s one of the things that perplexes me when people write it. I get the whole breeding quickly thing but they’ve been shown to be predated on by just about everything, including bugs. They can’t get food well. They stink on ice at building nests. Yet they’re running around in giant armies? OK
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PETA
I think with Fluffies there’s a few elements that help keep them alive in universe, obviously the quick breeding is a main factor, but also how many they have. A Fluffy can drop anything between 20-50 foals in the same time it takes a human to grow one (depending on headcanon) and even if just 10% live to adulthood - another point, Fluffies reach breeding age very fast - that’s still 5 more Fluffies having 20+ more foals each.
There’s the note that Fluffies, despite their cries otherwise, can usually survive on very little food, or mostly inedible food. The amount of headcanons that have Fluffies living off grass or leaves or mouldy food shows that starvation - while not completely avoidable - isn’t going to be the main killer of a Fluffy.
There’s the attitude issue, a Smarties and their herd will usually get wiped out for sure but there are some Fluffies that learn and will stay hidden to avoid danger, leaving it more likely for them for them to breed more Fluffies.
And of course there’s the human element, between breeders, unsterilised runaways and hugboxers, the chances of domesticated Fluffies having more foals is a lot higher than you might think.
Fluffies might have the whole world against them, but the maths shows their numbers can last.
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think of them like tribbles, everything eats the tribble the only advantage they have is the exponential breeding. so long as there is enough to eat and a few breeding families, they may as well be legion.
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Fluffies are easy targets for predators, they’re terrible at surviving in any location where winter temperatures are an issue. And while they grow to sexual maturity with relative speed and can have large litters?
Unlike rats, they’re brightly colored so camouflage is a joke, and by nature, loud. Plus you’ve got a lot of “Fluffies are instinctually urged to seek out human contact”. Escaped domestic fluffies are unlikely to have the survival skills to become “Feral” without contact with an accepting herd.
It might make sense to have them be an annoyance issue in cities where accessible warmth, food either scavenged or from human charity, and lack of uncontrolled predation could lead to some numbers. But not in “This is a disaster!” scale, more just background noise you can tune out unless one shits on your shoes.
Anywhere rural? A “megaherd” just isn’t going to be able to get the numbers to be the ecological disaster some stories have them as. You might see a small feral family, or a group of families in an area with easily accessible food and shelter. But the numbers game combined with their weakness is going to be stacked against them.
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Paperwork
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I really like his approach that fluffies are the new cover for all that is wrong with government.
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It would not be the first time that companies have given more importance to their wallets than to the environment.
In headcanons where they’re pregnant for less than a week and the dams literally explode into their own weight in offspring, they’d have a bit of a boost, but yeah, probably not enough. Then again, fluffy fiction is set in the future, right? Presume it’s after most actual animals have been driven to extinction by human shittiness and maybe it works.
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In some of my stuff i have it be a legal requirement for industrial use fluffies to be sterilised and otherwise modified to reduce escape chance.
and in other stuff i have personal use fluffies being required to wear a geofencing collar that garrotes them if they go outside their allowed area.
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Hasbio paid like $6000 to three or four representatives re election campaigns and that’s that
edit: or possibly Finnland or Denmark passed reasonable sterilization and registration laws so instantly 10000 Americans started posting in Facebook groups called like FIRST THEY CAME FOR OUR FLUFFIE BREEDERS - FUCK SOCIALISM
Either way, a few small bribes and culture war and you can prevent pretty much any law passing
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It makes as much sense as the law not having any regulations protecting these sentient sapient english-speaking innocent animals.
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Money. It’s cheaper to kill them than to catch, sterilize and release them. Also, “cracking down on the fluffy issue” is an excellent political distraction from other problems they are ignoring right now.
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For me a big part of fluffy fiction is how stupid humans are. And there’s also precident: how many people don’t bother to spay/neuter dogs or cats? Even with areas that have animal control to try and keep up with stray/feral domestic pets, they can’t keep up (even worse when you get to places that are underfunded). Might be important BUT it’s not urgent. And even if it was voters don’t care enough.
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