urbananimal
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No, it's not the lyrics of Sympthy for the Devil by the Rollings Stones....
Phil Tripp here. I am the publisher of the magazine Urban Animal and the writer of the article that appeared in our latest quarterly issue. The article at http://www.urbananimal.net/pdf/issue10/8snake.pdf has prompted some very intelligent and non-emotional dialogue here which is in direct contrast to the reaction that happend from, oh, maybe 10 retailers, on epet products distributor and various board members of the Pet Industry Association of Australia.
I appreciate the input from the members of this forum. I respect the principles and intent of it.
So here's where we are at a month after releasing our magazine. We have had an incredible positive response to the article from people who care, know their herps and who are concerned. We have had maybe 11 emails and one call from the commercial sector who are pushing the agenda of selling herps in pet shops. Nine of these were stores that wanted to pull the free magazine out because it conflicts with their beliefs, policies, strategies or other principles. Fair enough.
One from a distributor of pet products was somewhat rabid and pulled any advertising from future issues. Another from a board member of PIAA was virulent and all over ther place, but he has his opinions and sees what I wrote as a backstabbing move to foul up the PIAA's strategy to introduce herp sales in stores. Another was a store that was initially mad at the article, wanted to pull the issue but then realised we had a lot more in common and retained our magazine.
I answered every email and call immediately. There was no reason to hide. I believe in what I wrote. What was most interesting was what I learned from the exercise. For example, I did not know that live feeding was prohibited. The three pet shops I bought a mouse, rat and guinea pig from all were told in advance that they were for live feeding of a pregnant snake. Not only did they not object, in two cases, they tried to sell me up!
I also learned some facts about quarantine, handling protocols and other things that I did not follow out of ignorance. But in the main, I got so much positive feedback, it outweighed the few rants from grammar and spelling challenged herp-entrepreneurs whose communiques were either written when they were drunk or so out of touch with reality as to beggar belief.
One interstate reptile supplier, a lower Sydney retailer and a supplier of frozen mice were particularly vitriolic in their emails. But you know what? It really was a storm in a teacup. We're talking less than a dozen here and following calls to over 400 outlets, there were no mentions of the article or any problem with content in the magazine.
For those of you who have read it in print or online, you probably understand our direction and our policies. I won't go into them here and am not trying to self promote. I merely want to thank you for your understanding and your intelligent, caring comments in this forum when it would have been easy to flame us.
Where do we go from here? Well, this 'boycott' hasn't really affected us, The stores that pulled the issues--Kellyville Pets, Pets on Broadway, Xtreme Pets, St Marys Aquarium (and its two other Penrith and PArramatta stores) , Erina Reef Aquariums and of course Auburn Aquariums--all had their copies removed and redistributed to other stores. No vets banned us. No hot tar and fethers were applied to us. And really, the small amount of lost revenue was worth the price of being able to deal with this issue honestly. I think we will more than make it up in the future.
I should say here that the PIAA director, Colin Bransgrove was very understanding and diplomatic. I respect he has a difficult job in dealing with this and he was very fair with me in all aspects of the issue.
As for the future, due to the positive response, I've decided to take this issue to the bureaucrats, politicians and media. I think they need to be more informed anddebate this issue before issuing the sort of blanket policy that is all too similar to the license situation that requires money and no knowledge. I'm not fighting PIAA or retailers. I am however doing my part for both the potential animal victims of this policy as well as those reptile caregivers who deserve representation too.
I just got back from the US for a music conference (my other day job) so will attempt to answer any responses to this and am also happy to accept any advice, criticism, suggestions, corrections and other input. I will be writing a follow up to this piece in the next issue.
Cheers
PHIL TRIPP--Publisher, Urban Animal [email protected]
Phil Tripp here. I am the publisher of the magazine Urban Animal and the writer of the article that appeared in our latest quarterly issue. The article at http://www.urbananimal.net/pdf/issue10/8snake.pdf has prompted some very intelligent and non-emotional dialogue here which is in direct contrast to the reaction that happend from, oh, maybe 10 retailers, on epet products distributor and various board members of the Pet Industry Association of Australia.
I appreciate the input from the members of this forum. I respect the principles and intent of it.
So here's where we are at a month after releasing our magazine. We have had an incredible positive response to the article from people who care, know their herps and who are concerned. We have had maybe 11 emails and one call from the commercial sector who are pushing the agenda of selling herps in pet shops. Nine of these were stores that wanted to pull the free magazine out because it conflicts with their beliefs, policies, strategies or other principles. Fair enough.
One from a distributor of pet products was somewhat rabid and pulled any advertising from future issues. Another from a board member of PIAA was virulent and all over ther place, but he has his opinions and sees what I wrote as a backstabbing move to foul up the PIAA's strategy to introduce herp sales in stores. Another was a store that was initially mad at the article, wanted to pull the issue but then realised we had a lot more in common and retained our magazine.
I answered every email and call immediately. There was no reason to hide. I believe in what I wrote. What was most interesting was what I learned from the exercise. For example, I did not know that live feeding was prohibited. The three pet shops I bought a mouse, rat and guinea pig from all were told in advance that they were for live feeding of a pregnant snake. Not only did they not object, in two cases, they tried to sell me up!
I also learned some facts about quarantine, handling protocols and other things that I did not follow out of ignorance. But in the main, I got so much positive feedback, it outweighed the few rants from grammar and spelling challenged herp-entrepreneurs whose communiques were either written when they were drunk or so out of touch with reality as to beggar belief.
One interstate reptile supplier, a lower Sydney retailer and a supplier of frozen mice were particularly vitriolic in their emails. But you know what? It really was a storm in a teacup. We're talking less than a dozen here and following calls to over 400 outlets, there were no mentions of the article or any problem with content in the magazine.
For those of you who have read it in print or online, you probably understand our direction and our policies. I won't go into them here and am not trying to self promote. I merely want to thank you for your understanding and your intelligent, caring comments in this forum when it would have been easy to flame us.
Where do we go from here? Well, this 'boycott' hasn't really affected us, The stores that pulled the issues--Kellyville Pets, Pets on Broadway, Xtreme Pets, St Marys Aquarium (and its two other Penrith and PArramatta stores) , Erina Reef Aquariums and of course Auburn Aquariums--all had their copies removed and redistributed to other stores. No vets banned us. No hot tar and fethers were applied to us. And really, the small amount of lost revenue was worth the price of being able to deal with this issue honestly. I think we will more than make it up in the future.
I should say here that the PIAA director, Colin Bransgrove was very understanding and diplomatic. I respect he has a difficult job in dealing with this and he was very fair with me in all aspects of the issue.
As for the future, due to the positive response, I've decided to take this issue to the bureaucrats, politicians and media. I think they need to be more informed anddebate this issue before issuing the sort of blanket policy that is all too similar to the license situation that requires money and no knowledge. I'm not fighting PIAA or retailers. I am however doing my part for both the potential animal victims of this policy as well as those reptile caregivers who deserve representation too.
I just got back from the US for a music conference (my other day job) so will attempt to answer any responses to this and am also happy to accept any advice, criticism, suggestions, corrections and other input. I will be writing a follow up to this piece in the next issue.
Cheers
PHIL TRIPP--Publisher, Urban Animal [email protected]
