So after reading everyone's reply to the Petition for stopping Pet smart and Petco. I kind of just came up with idea I would like to share with everyone. Just to let you know its just an idea I came up with a few minutes ago with no research or anything done since. I just want to get peoples input so we can see all the good, bad, and plausible points about it. I AM SOOOOO SORRY I WROTE SO MUCH, ITS SO LONG! I had to get what I was thinking out.
So since we all love tortoises and frown on wild caught specimens, I always see a thread on here about people sharing that they saw the poor care of tortoises at pet shops. We all would love to end the world wide import/exports of wild caught creatures but its not easy because the world revolves around money pretty much. I'm sure there are many people/groups working right now to end this but as a no body to the international pet trade I can't say I can do anything because words of concern is not as powerful as money.
So while the end to WC specimens is in the future why not take some action that hits home right now? It sucks that animals are being taken from the wild but why not provide the best captive environment as possible for them now that they are here? As a passionate owner, im here on TFO everyday to learn but that doesn't mean EVERY tortoise owner will do that research. So why not educate those that are just stepping into the world of tortoise ownership? As any person looking for a new pet, I admit I relied on the words of the person selling me the animal. Not many people will go and do more research. Also, sometimes you are given too much info at one time so its hard to remember. My solution?
Why don't we make a TFO care brochure/pamphlet for the different tortoise available at pet stores? We can include our up to date info with pictures and references to different sources for supply and info. Then we can print it out and go to the different stores and place them next to the animals. I've been to doctors office, stores and restaurants that has many different flyers and business cards from others people and places so I don't see why we can't do it too. We can talk to the managers about putting it their store and a reason to convince them to say yes is that we add pictures and suggested things in our brochure that is available at their store and we are not advertising anything, just doing it out of care and concern for the animals. For example the coco coir bricks are sold at Petco and Pet smart and everyone on TFO likes it too. I don't see why anyone would say no about free info brochures about the animals they sell. This way the buyers has some basic written info they can bring home and refer to. Since there are people all over the globe on TFO we can cover a lot of ground and gain new members.
Now there are issues with this idea of course.
- Not everyone here is super rich to be printing lots of copies to distribute.
- I see the big chain stores saying yes but I wonder how the mom n pop shops will take it. For that matter, they sell books there and how do they know we are giving good info?
- Is there really a basic amount of info that can be given to a beginner or is there too much to fit on both sides of a regular printer paper?
- We need a team of volunteers to help put this thing together and our administrators to place these documents on TFO for people to print it out.
- How often should we update it?
Overall just an idea. Does anyone else see how this will or will not work out and how the issues can be resolved?
So since we all love tortoises and frown on wild caught specimens, I always see a thread on here about people sharing that they saw the poor care of tortoises at pet shops. We all would love to end the world wide import/exports of wild caught creatures but its not easy because the world revolves around money pretty much. I'm sure there are many people/groups working right now to end this but as a no body to the international pet trade I can't say I can do anything because words of concern is not as powerful as money.
So while the end to WC specimens is in the future why not take some action that hits home right now? It sucks that animals are being taken from the wild but why not provide the best captive environment as possible for them now that they are here? As a passionate owner, im here on TFO everyday to learn but that doesn't mean EVERY tortoise owner will do that research. So why not educate those that are just stepping into the world of tortoise ownership? As any person looking for a new pet, I admit I relied on the words of the person selling me the animal. Not many people will go and do more research. Also, sometimes you are given too much info at one time so its hard to remember. My solution?
Why don't we make a TFO care brochure/pamphlet for the different tortoise available at pet stores? We can include our up to date info with pictures and references to different sources for supply and info. Then we can print it out and go to the different stores and place them next to the animals. I've been to doctors office, stores and restaurants that has many different flyers and business cards from others people and places so I don't see why we can't do it too. We can talk to the managers about putting it their store and a reason to convince them to say yes is that we add pictures and suggested things in our brochure that is available at their store and we are not advertising anything, just doing it out of care and concern for the animals. For example the coco coir bricks are sold at Petco and Pet smart and everyone on TFO likes it too. I don't see why anyone would say no about free info brochures about the animals they sell. This way the buyers has some basic written info they can bring home and refer to. Since there are people all over the globe on TFO we can cover a lot of ground and gain new members.
Now there are issues with this idea of course.
- Not everyone here is super rich to be printing lots of copies to distribute.
- I see the big chain stores saying yes but I wonder how the mom n pop shops will take it. For that matter, they sell books there and how do they know we are giving good info?
- Is there really a basic amount of info that can be given to a beginner or is there too much to fit on both sides of a regular printer paper?
- We need a team of volunteers to help put this thing together and our administrators to place these documents on TFO for people to print it out.
- How often should we update it?
Overall just an idea. Does anyone else see how this will or will not work out and how the issues can be resolved?