Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wrote this on another forum as a reply and wanted to share it here...

I never want to discourage people from doing anything they think will make a difference. But, in this case, petitions aren't going to do diddly squat.

PRESIDENT OBAMA COULDN'T OVERTURN THE CHANGES TO THE LACEY ACT. Seriously. He can't. The ONLY entity with the appropriate power to overturn it are USFWS and a legal battle. That's it.

IMO, having a dozen online petitions all screaming about this and that are simply detracting from where the REAL battle needs to take place... IN A COURTROOM!!!!!

In fact, if I were HSUS, Defenders of Wildlife, or the Nature Conservancy, I'd start 100 of these petitions MYSELF and just start randomly posting them on online reptile forums. This would be effective for two reasons.

1) It will fragment the efforts of our community (the python guys sign this one, the boa guys sign that one, the colubrid guys sign that one over there, the turtle guys sign this one, etc.) and all of the collective efforts amount to absolutely nothing because none of them are significant on their own and they can't be considered as a whole.

2) When the time comes to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE, many people will have the attitude of "well, I already signed like... 4 petitions, I'm not doing anything else - this is too much work".

So, jump off the petition bandwagon and wait for direction from USARK.

PETITIONS DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Did you know there was actually a petition started to try and influence legislators to take petitions seriously? LMFAO!!!!!! They do NOTHING unless they are ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS (think MILLIONS of signatures). Do you know why? Because it takes almost NO EFFORT to start a petition and get signatures on it. Most people don't even bother to read what they're signing. And our legislators know this. Why would they even THINK FOR A SECOND about considering something that took no effort?

What does work? Handwritten letters! Why? Because who actually does that? NOT MANY PEOPLE - that's who! In person visits with the staff of your elected officials are effective. Heck, even form letters with real signatures and phone calls to the offices of officials are infinitely more effective than petitions. Just the pure volume will make a politician stop in their tracks (as USARK has shown in the past).

So, don't waste your effort on these worthless petitions. They a DISTRACTION from the fight, not a tool for the fight.

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com Site received a complete makeover! Check it out!

I agree JB. what has to happen here and REALLY SOON is a joined collaboration of the ENTIRE group known as the HERPER NATION, from the frog guys, lizards, colubrids, BP, Tortoise, and on and on....Importers, breeders, wholesalers, venomous- I mean EVERYONE!!

I hope we are at a stage in our hobby where this is possible and that January 17 was a day that will live in imfamy. A day that will do for us what Pearl Harbor did for our country when it was united in a fight for a great cause! I think because of this unfortunate day we have a very good chance to unite and set aside our differences, and you're right they are trying to fragment us, distract us and divide us. we are fractured just within the boa constrictor segment of the hobby let alone all the others. CALL ME CRAZY BUT I THINK WE WILL UNITE AND POWER UP BIGTIME!

when we do UNITE and use our combined talents NOT JUST FUNDS, we can be the David Vs. Goliath, only we as David will tower over Goliath in strength, at the end of the day no matter how powerful the USFWS is and with the exception perhaps of some the radical members of HSUS, and similar groups, all those guys are just doing their jobs, they go home to their families, and live an entirely separate life from their jobs/careers.

we however are HERPERS, our passion are our animal and our love for them, therefore historically people that are passionate about something rarely lose the big fight and are allowed hold dear what they are passionate about. For instance how many of us actually make money buying and keeping our collections and how many of us use every last expendable extra dollar in our budgets to upgrade a cage or a thermostat or add a new project? meaning we use our money, our time and our resources for our collection not take from it to buy things or put it in something else. You think our adversaries will put their paychecks back into their jobs?

THIS IS WHY I BELIEVE WE ARE STRONGER, THEY FEAR THIS PASSION AND THIS BATTLE IS OURS TO LOSE!

Im in.... Lets fight.
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Richard Ceniceros

I couldnt agree more. There was a post last week that talked about what a waste of time it is to try and raise 150 K for the pending legal battle. I am under the opinion that this poster is nothing more than a radical animal rights freek. I asked them to show pics of their collection and they went away. USARK !

YUP. they are playing games. its ok, let the games begin. we will be soon raising in the millions from endorsements- i know this and once we have that kind of bank roll PLUS our Passion, we're untouchable.

millions from endorsements? now that's a good tickler!

now i'm anxious...how long must i stay tuned for more updates!?

Mark

all in good time, but it doesnt take much imagination to understand that there are alot of big corporations that make 10s of millions from our combined purchase power (i.e. rubbermaid, sterilite, fedex, delta, walmart, etc.) that will lose a large stream of income from our demise. until now all we've done is a meager job of awareness and our raise has been EXTREMELY limited and merely from within and from individuals no less, with small exceptions of course such as ZOOMED and perhaps some others. We are going next level- our little unorganized group has not done the proper things- but this will change and soon...

sounds great, I hope it is a very effective campaign!

Mark

it will be- and im looking towards you to be a front runner in the fight and contributing all your available funds and talents.

I'm here to support the cause!

We have much to do here in Ohio as well as on the national front, so I am sure I'll get plenty of opportunity, unfortunately...

Mark

a feel you, im in south florida 20 miles east of the everglades (ground zero)

I saw that guy, Dan, and took your lead with him the same way in the Herp Law forum. I pulled up all of his Kingsnake posts and there weren’t any in any of the other animal forums-except maybe one in the sulcatta forum.

I agree with you. I think there are some from the HSUS and other similar special interest groups that are here to make us doubt ourselves and our actions so that we do nothing. The message that guy seemed to be spreading was “nothing you can do will make a difference. Just give up now.” Hey-it’s good tactics. It’ll be an easier win if they can stop us from fighting.

Constructive criticism is fine. Just make sure you follow up with “since this won’t work, this is what I’m suggesting WILL work.” JB’s post exemplifies this. He says “this won’t work and here’s why,” but then he says “here’s what we should do.”

Let’s do this!
Aaron
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Aaron Houts
www.voodoomagicboas.com

JB does an amazing job. I feel my job is to point out the idiots and give them smart ass answer

JB does an amazing job. I feel my job is to point out the idiots and give them smart ass answer