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"Well, glad you are going to attend the
show! I honestly assumed you were with the whole herp
society defamation, take over plow which is so not
right but anyaway, glad to have you be a part of the
show. Yes, I actually think it will be not a good show
but a great show."
This was just forwarded to me from a vendor doing Tony's show this weekend that also happens to be a member of the GHS. The e-mail is from Tony Cueto I have left the vendor's name out for now(he/she does not wish to lose their table money), so you may take it as you will.
Now, the GHS, nor myself as it's acting "voice" in this thread has defamed Tony in anyway. Nothing that has been stated here has been untrue. Stating the fact that Tony Cueto misrepresented himself to the Cobb Galleria as the "marketing director" of the GA Herpetological Society is not defamation. Nor is stating that Tony has expressly been told that the GHS will no longer be a part of his Atlanta shows, the reason being his falsely using our name. It is also a fact that Tony was asked to remove the GHS from his listing of attractions, which he still has not done.
As for takeovers, the GHS did shows in Atlanta for 5 years before Tony came into town. Tony did not ask our permission or consult us beforehand so that we might work out a schedule to make both shows fit. He simply set up at the same venues we planned to do shows at within a couple of weeks of our show. The GHS is in no way attempting to take over Tony's show or defame it, but yet we did not feel the need to consult with Tony over our own business plans. He obviously did not feel the need to consult us over his business plans to do shows here.
It appears that Tony might be upset that we are getting back into the show business again and will be offering up competition to his shows. As he has shown with Columbia, it appears that Tony sets up a show in a market and believes that the market is exclusively his from then on. Tony Cueto does not own the City of Atlanta nor any of the venues in Atlanta or any other city, and it is up to them to rent to and take money from whomever they wish.
The reason the GHS has decided to go back into shows is NOT to compete with Tony or "run him out of town." The GHS is now in the process of setting up several herp conservation grants, and we decided to go back into shows to build up revenue for these grants. We are not in the show business to pay our bills or rent or to make a ton of money. We are doing our show to further not only responsible herp keeping, but also conservation and general awareness of the herps around us. We are also planning a much different event without the carnival atmosphere.
If Tony continues to do his show in Atlanta, that is fine. We are not in the business to compete with him or try to make him fail. We do not wish his shows to fail. In fact, we hope all the vendors all do well this weekend. We will simply not be involved in the event.
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