No, I don't mean selling shiny pokemon on ebay. I mean in the actual game and anime. I mean, Magikarp are sold a lot throughout games and at the game corner you can buy pokemon sometimes. However, the Magikarp deal is a tad shady, and the game corner pokemon are being run by team rocket (Most of the time). So, in a canon sense, not a real life sense, would selling pokemon be legal?
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In a canon sense, is it legal to sell pokemon?
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Well, when the Johto and Kanto game corners are run by the kindly gents in HG/SS, they do sell Abra, Porygon, and the like. I even think they sold Dratini and Eevee, two rare pokemon. They don't seem to be under any fire from police.
Maybe. Licenses, perhaps? You need a trainer ID to even own a pokemon/battle (the games are never clear on this), so it could be the same case. Honestly, I just want the info for RP's. Makes things helluva a lot easier in determining laws and the such.
Shiny Motley
2016 Singles Football
Well, you have to remember that in Kanto at least (I don't know about Johto as I never played the games myself), the Game Corner is run by Team Rocket, who, let's face it, have shady business practices, to say the least.
I can see Pokemon being sold for pets and potentially livestock, but otherwise I'd like to imagine Pokemon are treated somewhat equally with humans.
I can see Pokemon being sold for pets and potentially livestock, but otherwise I'd like to imagine Pokemon are treated somewhat equally with humans.
As I stated before the two game corners in HG/SS are run by two old guys, who have their assistants sell pokemon and tm's and the such, but then again it's free to play the game. I suppose selling pokemon is a moral thing: whether or not you treat them as tools/ a platform to profit off of.
I can only assume it depends on the species and the situation. But I'd say it probably is, due to the existence of Pokémon Breeders. I'm not talking about the Day Care folks here - who "mysteriously" find eggs - I'm talking about dedicated Pokémon Breeders whose actual job is to breed specialty Pokémon for others. We've seen the trainer class in the game, we've seen the anime characters. It's a thing. One assumes such breeders would charge a fee for their work upon delivery of the specially-bred Pokémon - and I doubt they just hand out less-optimal members of clutches for nothing either, or keep them all around. So basically, you could put a spin around it all you want but it's still Pokémon selling, and is very likely legal.
And then you have things like the Safari Zones, which are ostensibly conservation programs for rare/non-native Pokémon species, which maintain their operations by doing for-profit Safari Games in which others may get a chance to capture these rare species. That could entirely be construed as selling them with a flimsy cover. In addition, some species, such as Porygon, are man-made and are straight up marketed by Silph Co. as one of their products. No one beeps about it.
So yeah, I would definitely say that there's either no legislation on the subject of "selling" Pokémon, or if there is one, it's full of loopholes that can be exploited. I'd say it's more of a society thing - it'd probably frown upon straight up 'selling' Pokémon like some kind of slave labour, but wouldn't bat an eye at many things where Pokémon change hands for money - which isn't really surprising. The treatment of Pokémon appears to vary a lot from 'mere animals' to 'human-level sentient beings' - and they are incredibly diverse creatures in terms of intelligence and sentience, after all - so really, the ethics behind selling them would probably be at least on the same level of complexity as the ethics behind capturing/training/battling them to begin with - pretty damn ambiguous.
(However, if you think about it too much you basically miss the entire point of the series in the name of SJWing. Yes, tumblr, your Pokémon is problematic, shut up.)
And then you have things like the Safari Zones, which are ostensibly conservation programs for rare/non-native Pokémon species, which maintain their operations by doing for-profit Safari Games in which others may get a chance to capture these rare species. That could entirely be construed as selling them with a flimsy cover. In addition, some species, such as Porygon, are man-made and are straight up marketed by Silph Co. as one of their products. No one beeps about it.
So yeah, I would definitely say that there's either no legislation on the subject of "selling" Pokémon, or if there is one, it's full of loopholes that can be exploited. I'd say it's more of a society thing - it'd probably frown upon straight up 'selling' Pokémon like some kind of slave labour, but wouldn't bat an eye at many things where Pokémon change hands for money - which isn't really surprising. The treatment of Pokémon appears to vary a lot from 'mere animals' to 'human-level sentient beings' - and they are incredibly diverse creatures in terms of intelligence and sentience, after all - so really, the ethics behind selling them would probably be at least on the same level of complexity as the ethics behind capturing/training/battling them to begin with - pretty damn ambiguous.
(However, if you think about it too much you basically miss the entire point of the series in the name of SJWing. Yes, tumblr, your Pokémon is problematic, shut up.)
My thoughts exactly. Unless it's stated someday that Pokemon Breeders solely work on a bartering system verses payment via cash, one can only assume that the business is based on buying, selling, and trading breeding stock. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Pokemon breeding within the anime series was indeed based upon bartering, while the games and various manga series would opt more for cash. The Pokemon Adventures/Special series in particular has always walked a questionable (or just more realistic) line.
On Neopets (remember Neopets?) the trading of pets has to be conducted entirely through 1-to-1 pet swaps (unless you go to sketchy sites where you can buy painted Neopets for in-game currency or RL money), and I have to say that it is a giant pain in the ass, so I hope that pokemon breeders have the option of cash or goods along with barter.
Pokemon breeders would probably have a much more important role in a "real" pokemon world-- wild pokemon are dangerous and aggressive, such that you're barred from leaving your walled town before you have your own pokemon to defend you, so most regular people would get their first pokemon from a breeder who's socialized it and prepared it to be a trainer's pokemon-- or judged that it would make a better pet, or contest pokemon. And so you'd likely pay the breeder for that pokemon, as compensation for their time and energy in pre-training your new pokemon, but also toward whatever traveling and recruiting they'd have to do to find compatible pokemon for their breeding operation.
In the games, outside of the game corners in Kanto/Johto, there's merely the subtext of being able to get pokemon for money-- the rich kid/rich adult trainers you encounter often have unusual pokemon for the area (well, some of them just have a Zigzagoon or whatever), which seems to imply that they have the money for pokemon that the other local trainers don't, whether that means that they straight up bought a pokemon, or more subtly, their money gave them greater opportunity to travel and encounter different pokemon.
That said, the TR game corner always felt sketchy even outside of the fact that it was run by TR-- some of the pokemon sold there (dratini, pinsir/scyther, nidorin@) felt like poached (or resold) Safari Zone pokemon. :B It's easy to imagine those pokemon not getting a lot of care, too, like the guy just hands you a pokeball, and when you release the pokemon as far as it knows it's still in the Safari Zone, doesn't know who you are, and flips out.
There's an important subtext to catching a wild pokemon, actually-- your pokemon weakens the wild pokemon and you catch it, and your pokemon is loyal to you, so that wild pokemon looks up the chain and goes, "OK, charmander is stronger than me, and charmander listens to them, so I better listen to them". But when you get traded a pokemon (or, technically, given one-- but the games always give those gift pokemon your ID), that pokemon is like "who's this asshole?"
Anyway, tl;dr, buying pokemon is likely, but you better interact with and come to an understanding with that pokemon before you buy it; otherwise it's a risky proposition that doesn't establish the delicate social hierarchy upon which 10-year-olds training giant monsters rests. Caveat emptor.
This, the smarter you make pokemon the more dubiously ethical a lot of the core mechanics in the series become, including battling and breeding mechanics. (How we treat animals in our own world is a really fraught and complicated subject.) But if you go down that route, the exchange of pokemon for money pales in comparison to the greater issues of trapping and coercing sentient organisms, so.
Pokemon breeders would probably have a much more important role in a "real" pokemon world-- wild pokemon are dangerous and aggressive, such that you're barred from leaving your walled town before you have your own pokemon to defend you, so most regular people would get their first pokemon from a breeder who's socialized it and prepared it to be a trainer's pokemon-- or judged that it would make a better pet, or contest pokemon. And so you'd likely pay the breeder for that pokemon, as compensation for their time and energy in pre-training your new pokemon, but also toward whatever traveling and recruiting they'd have to do to find compatible pokemon for their breeding operation.
In the games, outside of the game corners in Kanto/Johto, there's merely the subtext of being able to get pokemon for money-- the rich kid/rich adult trainers you encounter often have unusual pokemon for the area (well, some of them just have a Zigzagoon or whatever), which seems to imply that they have the money for pokemon that the other local trainers don't, whether that means that they straight up bought a pokemon, or more subtly, their money gave them greater opportunity to travel and encounter different pokemon.
That said, the TR game corner always felt sketchy even outside of the fact that it was run by TR-- some of the pokemon sold there (dratini, pinsir/scyther, nidorin@) felt like poached (or resold) Safari Zone pokemon. :B It's easy to imagine those pokemon not getting a lot of care, too, like the guy just hands you a pokeball, and when you release the pokemon as far as it knows it's still in the Safari Zone, doesn't know who you are, and flips out.
There's an important subtext to catching a wild pokemon, actually-- your pokemon weakens the wild pokemon and you catch it, and your pokemon is loyal to you, so that wild pokemon looks up the chain and goes, "OK, charmander is stronger than me, and charmander listens to them, so I better listen to them". But when you get traded a pokemon (or, technically, given one-- but the games always give those gift pokemon your ID), that pokemon is like "who's this asshole?"
Anyway, tl;dr, buying pokemon is likely, but you better interact with and come to an understanding with that pokemon before you buy it; otherwise it's a risky proposition that doesn't establish the delicate social hierarchy upon which 10-year-olds training giant monsters rests. Caveat emptor.
This, the smarter you make pokemon the more dubiously ethical a lot of the core mechanics in the series become, including battling and breeding mechanics. (How we treat animals in our own world is a really fraught and complicated subject.) But if you go down that route, the exchange of pokemon for money pales in comparison to the greater issues of trapping and coercing sentient organisms, so.
I could honestly see a pet shop establishment going on. After all, not EVERYONE is a trainer, so why not? Don't you wanna go buy a Rattata or Ekans?
Rarer Pokemon would probably be sold as common Pokemon are, well, common. Also, not sure if this has already been brought up, it depends on the temperament of said rare Pokemon. I mean, you can't catch a Houndoom and expect it to be a perfect pet. Or Litwick for that matter. People would be after Pokemon like Eevee or Dratini or starters. It would be incredibly difficult to have small children with you if you meet a trainer. They would want the Pokemon and that would be an awkward situation.
This is actually quite a good question. Hmm. Let me think for a moment. Alright, this is going to be very short for me, but in all, selling Pokemon for profit gain only should technically be illigal. However, if you are selling them as pets from breeding(like in real life if somebodies dog or other pet had babies and you want to sell them to good people at a good age,) then it would be complicated. I mean, there could be a liscence(pardon my spelling) that you would need in order to sell Pokemon as pets, or potentially as lifestock.