I have said a few things over the past two years and I have acted upon them.

1. We need to do more community outreach. How many people do you meet that has never talked with someone about owning a snake? How many of you work to change that perspective? I put mine out in the open here on kingsnake. I give a LOT of my free time to do things like the Milwaukee Museums Snake Day (which I blogged about) to talk with people who will look at a snake and go EWWW and explain WHY they are great pets and why people should keep them. Get into schools, get into boy scout troops, explain the science of keeping and explain why keeping is GOOD.

2. I work with shelters. I run a rescue so this is a given, but I work with shelters to change the perception of the drug dealing, tattooed having criminal reptile owner to a normal person who owns them. Granted I have tattoos but they are rarely visible when working with groups.

3. I spend days in places most serious reptile folks would never go. Petco. This is where your average beginner gets their start. I work to educate the beginners on proper pets, proper care, direct them places to actually learn, explain pros and cons with specific animals and even discredit the stores corporate care sheets, referring to better materials. I work to explain to dog and cat folks OUR perspective.

Reaching out to groups like TNR, the no kill movement, the pit bull community, the bird community, the fish community, the ferret community because THEY HAVE BEEN WHERE WE ARE AT! These are all groups that have had to fight for what they have. They know persecution for ownership. The issue is most people can not imagine loving something that doesnt love you back. You need to put into words the magic of owning reptiles. Why. What is it that they give you back. Anthropomorphizing helps. Making them understand, not just giving the cop out that they dont like it so we are done. Make them like it or at least UNDERSTAND.

We all hit the reptile shows, but seriously how many have taken the time to spend a little free time talking to NON reptile people about ownership. That is where we are SERIOUSLY lacking. To effectively change the general population we need to GIVE them a reason to change how they think.
-----
Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
Visit kingsnake on Facebook!
Follow Kingsnake on Twitter!

[ Show Entire Thread ]