Let's vent:What really ticks you off about the pet trade!

[Hornets23]

I dont know if the question is what the ecosystem CAN handle. Sure life can and has rebounded from catastrophic events. However, I think we have to look at the toll that humanity is taking. Sure, perhaps the earth can bouce back, but does that mean its ok to destroy and damage it?

[Stefan-A]

I think that the smart thing to do, would be to consider what's in our interest.

[Hornets23]

In my opinion preservation is in our interest.

[mycolorfulheart]

In my opinion preservation is in our interest.

Agreed! It's comforting (to me) to know that life will bounce back in the future. But in the short term we're poisoning our world and wasting our resources. Also sustainable industry is almost always better for the poor and middle class. Stripping an area of its resources generates alot of wealth, but it goes to big business, not to the regular folk who NEED the environment to survive.
Ok, rant over.

[Bill]

I just want to wrap this up by saying yes there have been mass extinctions in the past. the planet for the most part has always been here and for the most part barring any interstellar catastrophe always will be. I just want to bring up two cases to help make a point. the first is what was found by the first survey teams to go to the Bikini atoll after the hydrogen bomb detonation. The island for the most part was vaporized. How ever two species were found alive. Rats and roaches. These species survived because they were believed to be under ground at the time of the blast. The island now looks similar to the way it was before the blast. However it is still uninhabitable to humans do to the high levels of radiation. I will get to my point in a minute. two. I would like to point out the situation in Ethiopia. If you ever have a chance to see air recon photos of Ethiopia from WWII you will see a country that was covered in rain forest. first the country was slashed and burned. Grass was planted for live stock to graze. This was the first transformation from rain forest to savannah. Now that there was no wood to be had people had to adapt. shelters had be constucted from mud and grass much like that of the early settlers of the plains states here in the US. Because there was no more fire wood people had to adapt. They had to use balls of manure,dried, then burned for cooking.Now, when the rain forest was gone, so went the rain. When they had to remove all the manure, so went the fertilizer for the grass. When the grass died from a lack of fertilizer and rain the top soil blew away. Now we are witnessing another mass extinction. That of the Ethiopian people. Time frame,about seventy years. I don't stay awake at night worrying about the next species to go extinced. It happens all the time. Yes voids in a biotope are quickly filled by other species and this planet was here long before we were and it will be here long after. My worries are a lot less noble and a lot more selfish. We are not making this planet uninhabitable. We are making it uninhabitable for us! Now I know NASA has a plan. They want to build a moon base and colonize mars. Lets just ponder that one for a moment. We all know or should know by now just how hard it is to create a biotope for our own exotic pets. In some cases it has been so cost prohibitive that some species can only be kept at zoos and national aquariums and some have been declared all but impossible to keep in captivity. So how well do you think we will all do on mars? I think we would all be better off spending that money on fixing up the old place. I don't care about the big bang theory. How I got here doesn't really matter much to me. Fact is,I am here and I would like to stick around. So I make sure I don't pour toxic chemicals and feces down my well and I don't burn toxic substances in my home and when I hunt or fish I try to take only what I need. All I ask is that others will show me that same courtesy. I enjoy the fact that I am not the only species on this planet as well. Not because I want to frolic around the forest like Snow White in a Disney movie but because I like to eat and most of these critters are quite tasty. So it seems that it is in my best interest to look out for them and the things they eat. I don't care for the alternative. Sucking synthetic proteins out of a tube. I am sorry that these posts are not directed to anyone in particular. I have to frase them as more of a shout out. My typeing skills are poor and my time is short. I do want to respond to your posts as best I can and I hope you see my point. Thank you for taking the time to write and I hope you all have a great day!

Bill

[Bill]

I just want to take up another minute of your time if I may. The people on this site have been great and I would like to thank you all for your help and friendship. I wanted to try to show some appreciation by creating a thread. My intent was to give you all a place to vent. Please use it however you like. My hope is that it can be used to help all of you get through the everyday grind. Sometimes your just having a bad day and writeing about it will make you feel a little better. Sometimes you have a problem. Maybe some of us can help. Maybe you are just so frustrated about something and feel that there is nothing that can be done about. Maybe haveing a place to just shout out loud will help or maybe,just maybe it will make you feel a little better. Maybe reading about someone elses problems will make you feel a little better about your own. Maybe, you wont feel so isolated and alone. Do with it what you will but I think you should give it a try.

All The Best!
Bill

[Zephyr]

Well honestly, even if you were to take out all the topic-specific books and leave the encyclopedias and whatnot, you'd never get the details and all of the other intricacies of a topic-specific book...

[drache]

wow - what a thread to read this early in the morning
the pet trade . . .
in a sense we all are the pet trade and charged with changing it
I haven't bought live animals other than feeder fish or crickets from a store in a long time, and so I can somewhat tune out things that happen in that segment, but I do buy their stuff and did just this morning shoot off an email to let them know that yes, I'm sending them a photo of the damaged item, but I consider it environmental insanity to ship them a largish item they're just gonna toss and if that's what it takes to get the item replaced, I'll absorb the cost
I've also complained to Flukers about the insanity of shipping water crystals already expanded - shipping water in essence, but oops, I forgot - that's routine here, because the average person around here would rather drink unregulated water that's been sitting in plastic for a few weeks and has been shipped all over the globe, than risk their regulated municipal water supply, or invest in a filter
but this is america and gas is cheap - or at least it was when I last had a car . . .
when you have some extra time, watch this:
The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard
and if you don't have the time, I just want you to know that the most shocking piece of information I got from it is that in the US a whopping 99% of consumer goods end up it the landfill within less than six months
so, in a culture with this level of disposability, how do you expect people to think of their pets any differently
the fact that we have a pet trade makes animals just another consumer purchase - it's easy
so my personal dilemma is this:
which and how many animals will I breed? because I want them to go to good homes and not just make money and frankly, I'm not comfortable selling to a store
my babies are mellow and handleable and it's not about the money for me, but the care they'll receive