Oh yes, a right bunch of loonies. Animal welfare and all that. Can you imagine?
One wonders how they can sleep at night. Barbarians.
Two years? Wait, why didn’t you say that up front? That’s amazing.
As I am too thick to know if you are serious or sarcastic, I will say, for a hermit crab in the care of an 8-10 years old, it was remarkable. The poor things have very short average lifespan as pets from what I know. I had to dig a grave for Kansas* in February. Not the easiest thing before leaving for work.
I really think it comes down to standard PETA practices. If you have not noticed, they are not really in favor of domestic animals. PetSmart is either the largest or the second largest chain that is Pet oriented. PETA also has problems with most Zoos from what I have read over the years.
Jim
- The Hermit Crab was named Kansas, I am not sure why.
Are we talking about worrying about what animals that eat each others vomit and…(drat, this isn’t the pit) doodie are going to get from the floor of a pet store? I would imagine it would be a lot safer than taking them to a doggy park or on even on a busy street for that matter.
Oh how I wish it was for more reasons than are just in this thread.
I take my dog to both PetSmart and PetCo and let people pet her. But she is one of those mellow, sweet golden retrievers and people ALWAYS ask.
I think taking your dogs out to those places is a good way to socialize both dogs AND people. It makes me feel all warm inside when a kid asks its parent if they can pet my dog and the parent says “please ask her if it’s ok” and I say it’s ok and tell them how to properly approach a dog. I feel like we’ve done a good deed.
PETA goes far, far beyond “animal welfare.” I don’t think too many people besides PETA takes PETA seriously. I’ve never known anybody who did, and I’m a huge animal lover.
PETA people aren’t animal lovers, they’re animal rights activists. Their reason for being is to oppose any human use of animals - as pets, as food, as clothing, as livestock, test subjects, service animals. They may have started out caring about humane treatment of strays, lab animals, etc., but they’ve long since turned into an ideological front.
I see I am in no way on my own in my strong dislike for PETA.
This is good to know for some reason.
So do many people, myself included. Can anyone fail to feel the air of desperation and depression coming from most animals in zoos?
Was it flat? Was it originally from Kansas?
No, I go to a lot of zoos. I think the zoo bashers are unrealistic and overlooking how much good zoos accomplish.
It is hard to get kids to care about animals if they don’t see them.
Zoos are responsible for keeping several species from going extinct.
Zoo-keeping is a field you enter as you like animals, not for the glamor and high pay.
Most Zoos treat animals extremely well and most zoo animals live longer than their counterparts in the wild.
Most animals in the zoos where born in zoos.
Zoos have come a long way from the days of a Lion in a 8x12 cage.
Kansas was a pretty normal small Hermit Crab. She lived most of her life in a large cage that we hand built. She had other shells, toys and the wire cage itself to climb on and a house in which to hide. My daughter would regularly swap out toys so she would not get board. This was all done by a child that also has 2 friendly cats and more recently a devoted dog in the house. The only thing Kansas did not have was more hermit crabs.
Jim
Ah, **Sprockets. ** How lovely to see you again.
When people make assertions on this board, sometimes, especially if they are mildy outrageous, they are asked for a cite. The burden of proof resides on the person making the assertion, NOT the general public. This is one of the reasons why I love the Dope so much.
This is an anonymous message board. We have absolutely no idea who you are, what your experiences are, let alone if you’ve brought talking out of your ass to Olympic levels. You’ve been around for what? A month? Be patient, and ease up on your hostility. You obviously find things on this board that appeal to you, some of those things are a direct result of our culture here. Asking for a cite is a part of our culture.
Part of learning includes a healthy dose of scepticism and critical thinking. There is absolutely nothing demeaning about it at all.
Oops, sorry Sprockets, I did not realize you were a new member. I never looked at your join date.
First please allow me to Welcome You to the Straight Dope, I hope you enjoy it despite posters like me challenging your posts.
Sorry for going after your post so much, but I found your attack on PetSmart counter to my experience and I suspected this was a PETA oriented attack.
I have taken everything that comes from PETA with a large grain of salt. The existence and methods of PETA makes the job of more moderate animal and green groups a lot tougher.
It might be worth it to you to review much of what you have learned from PETA. Their are some glaring inaccuracies and deceptions. Additionally, this is a group whose ultimate aim is to make everyone vegan and to do away with domestic animals. I don’t really want to live in a world without our animal companions.
PETA advocated to teens and college students to drink Beer not Milk. This was an actual PETA ad campaign.
PETA also has a horrible record of euthanizing animals that could possible find a good home.
Actually just reading the Wikipedia article might be a good start.
The President of PETA is Ingrid Newkirk and she has provided funds to Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which is effectively a terrorist organization. In fact the FBI considers it one.
Michael Vick is probably the best thing that ever happened for PETA. It got them a lot of free press and renewed interest.
Jim
My kitties say to tell PETA that they can have their human servants when they pry us out of their cold, dead paws.
Not to argue with you, fisha, or for Sprockets…I guess I just want to grumble that one of the very first disagreements I had with anyone on this board was “won” by that person asserting he is a wildlife biologist. Everyone seemed to think that was a dandy assertion. My thinking is that if he can get away with it, why not Sprockets?
I guess my point is we apply this principle unevenly. Uh…carry on.
Sailboat
No. The ASPCA is an animal welfare organization. PETA is an animal rights organization. Whole different kind of thing. I think all animals should be treated with kindness and respect by humans. I don’t think we should release all domesticated animals (likely resulting in their deaths), cause problems with service animals (who like their jobs), abandon modern medicine (resting on the deaths of lab animals) and go vegan. This means that I’m not crazy like the PETA people I’ve met.
and likely result in the deaths of a few high-ranking PETA officials)…
I’m not sure I exactly know what you are saying. You got into a debate with someone who WAS a wildlife biologist, and the general rabble took him at face value, no matter how outrageous the claims? Or someone who pretended to be a wildlife biologist?
I’m a residential contractor. You can’t tell if I am or not, I could be a purple bunny for all you know. If I make a post about something to do with the trades, I typically preface it with “Contractor checking in.” This gives a little more weight to my post, but it by no means I can’t be wrong, or I’m not talking out of my ass. And I better be able to back up, with cites, any claims that I make. I also would have to prove that I am a contractor, if necessary, to provide credibility. That is why I am typically very careful when posting as a contractor.
(When I’m posting as a regular rube, I just blather on and on.)
I would suspect, from seeing other contractor/tradesmen on the board, that if I was not knowledgeable, I would be called on it, and lose all credibility in everything I post.
But yeah, it’s never fun to be on the side of “you don’t know shit.” I didn’t see that here- I just saw general assertions, and a pretty polite query of “cite?”
Many zoos are still substandard in their treatment of animals. While the days of 8x12 cages is gone, many enclosures still deny animals that inthe wild would roam freely over thousands of acres to a space not much larger than three bedroom house. I am not saying for a second that zoos don’t do anything good for animals or that folks who work at zoos don’t care for animals. But there is still good and bad amongst zoos.
Don’t get me started on animal circuses, though.
Agreed, but I have rarely been to a zoo that appears substandard in handling animals. I really have gone to an unusual number of zoos.
Can you specifically mention any substandard zoos you have been to. I can think of only one. There is a small zoo at Hersey Park that I thought was still substandard in cage sizes.
Jim