Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This organization is trying to stop the feeder rodent industry. Little chance of that but they are stealing pics from website and KS ads to place on their site. I see mine, Allpegate, The Mouse Emporium, and others all painted in a negative light. They did not contact me for my permission to use my pics. When I asked them to remove the pics they claimed "fair use" and refused to remove them. What can we do? They are accusing use of over crowding, neglect, abuse, and mistreatment of our rodents. My rodents are a hobby business but it is growing and I don't like some group trying to make me look bad. The person who responded to my e mail is Lydia Pierce-Dougherty. E mail is lydia@eadieshouse.org. I just want all you rodent folks, big and small, to know there is a push to put us out of business. Check it out. The site is Paw of Justice. I found it on a Google search looking for my business website. David

It's a bit more insideous than that. This is a "back door" way of striking at the entire reptile industry. By raising the bar on the food supply requirements (hence cost) they can effectively price many people out of the hobby with the resulting higher food prices and increased difficulty of obtaining food animals. I smell a rat.....

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I looked over their site just a bit and found a lot of flaws.

For instance, they say things like "poor conditions just to save money" and "animal abuse to save money", then they say routine treatment for internal/external parasites shows that the animals are not healthy.

Why don't they say "breeders are responsible and spend money they don't need to, to treat for parasites on a regular basis as a responsible maintenance program, to treat the animals humanely"---Doesn't have the same ring to it as, "the animals are treated on a monthly basis so they must be sick"

Sometimes lack of cost doesn't equal abuse.

If mouse breeders kept mice on diamonds for bedding, they would complain about the diamonds being too hard for their feet! So what if there are inexpensive beddings that are being used? They work don't they! Mouse breeders don't choose those beddings because of all their flaws do they? There are a lot of other bedding that they could use that cost more and don't work nearly as well! Why don't they tell us what beddings work better instead of criticizing just the cost, and saying money is saved at the expense of the animal.

I use 3 types of bedding, depending on which cage and animal they are used for. This is based on what works best for me, not cost.--I use aspen, pine, and cell-sorb. All have advantages and disadvantages, and cost is not my main concern!

And to complain about dust? Think wild mice never come into contact with dust? Consider the fact that their faces are about 1/4 inch from the ground! Think any bedding available doesn't contain dust? And then there are those pictures trying to show injured animals and over-heating. I could neither see any indication of overheating or injuries. Mouse breeders know what overheating looks like, and the way those mice were distributed in the container, they were not overheated! Overheated mice run around wildly trying to find a cool spot, so they are evenly distributed in the cage because of their movement. They are not clumped up in the corners with empty spaces in the middle of the cage! They usually do this if they are cool, or if conditions are just right.

(Those guys should go work for the Kerry campaign, they really know how to spin!)-LOL

Rodney

And I thought it was a "Bush-league" operation!

(Had to do it.....had to do it....LOL...)

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."