I tried to tell everyone to stop trying to be a “nice guy” because they really do finish LAST. I was told by a number of people “Oh, we can work with them, they just don’t understand.” Well yes they do understand and we can’t say in public what they did to you.





Absolutely, for some reason people seem to think that "we" can make them understand,Convince the people that oppose the Exotic animal trade to change their views and who they support. Not with reason you cant.Just because you contact someone and they seem sympathetic to your plight does not mean they are.You cant stab someone in the back if they see it coming. Some people don't seem to understand this, call it trusting, gullible or whatever , its not smart. Ive been following the Animal Rights industry/movement for a long time and remember the 1974 deal, Louie Porrus put together a huge letter writing campaign that crushed the opposition. But things are tougher now, the AR groups have not been spinning their wheels for the last thirty years and the Internet has made the spread of propaganda so fast and simple. A little two paragraph article about some guys pet boa getting lose, the type of thing that gets printed on page 4 section D of a small town news paper, what used to be seen by a few hundred people now gets viewed by thousands, and sometimes makes front page headlines. This is the type of publicity that those who are against the exotic pet trade thrive on.



"can tell you from personal experience that politics is a dirty nasty business and if we are going to win we need to be bigger, meaner and nastier than our opponents. If they get a thousand people to send letters to a politician we need to get two thousand. You need to start sending contributions to your local elected officials not just to a big organizations, even if its only $25 it has your name on it and their staff will remember you when you need to talk to them."



I have to agree, but its tough. The exotic pet trade can be so disjointed, bootleg . There's not much of a structured industry to build on at times. As the most recent letter writing campaign showed, the reptile trade can show up in force but in the long hall, I think the whole exotic pet trade needs to show up for each other and needs to get the domesticated pet companies support, that is where the real money is and with the real money comes real power. Countering (Junk science) is much easier said then done when it comes to many biological issues. Unlike math where you can prove the other guys numbers don't add up, when your talking live animal issues .......if your against a group of "credible" and alike thinking scientist who have each others back, the best you can do is counter with your own group. This certainly helps but all the while the our scientist are better then yours stalemate goes on, the legislative wheels are turning.



People also have to research who they are supporting, the HSUS makes NO secrets about who they support and WHY. They send questioners out to the candidates, the ones that score the highest and have the strongest track record of supporting their views get the FULL support of the HSUS, nothing else the candidate stands for or believes in is considered, The support is based solely on the candidates view regarding Animal Rights.



ERNIE EISON

WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

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