KOHLER, Phil Inquiry

This person sent an email to my local herp society critiquing its turtle care sheet. The care sheet does need rewriting, and most of the society's care sheets are being redone; but I get kind of leery of gift horses - so to speak especially when all they quote as references are online forums such as kingsnake.com among others.

Now the society is possibly going to have this person rewrtite the care sheet for a membership. Yjis makes it a business transaction of sorts, so I figured I'd make an inquiry here.

I was wondering if anyone has heard of him - Phil KOHLER - and knows of his credentials?

I am always on the lookout for AR fanatic types who might be out to ruin a good thing. Hopefully this guy is just a nice guy into turtles, but I won't know until I check.

Phil Kohler is a member of Turtletimes Discussion forums where I moderate.He's a good guy who possibly saw something on you're care sheet that was either outdated or incorrect.As far as I know,he does not belong to PETA.Just a fellow Turtle Fan

Sorry,forgot my name.


Andy Sury

TurtlePimp.com

TurtlePimp.com/

Mr. Bartley,

A Mr. Heiser responded to me asking if I would consider rewriting it. I agreed to this because of my interests in turtles.

The subject of LIHS membership was not touched upon until Mr. Heiser mentioned it in a subsequant e-mail message to me. At no time did I request this. Considering that the LIHS is not located near my home it would have been a membership I would not likely have explored due to the inconvenience of travel time to attend most of the LIHS functions- which are not hosted on the East End, where I am located [Manorville].

As far as sources I quoted in my original message, I indicated the caresheets and generally accepted husbandry tactics mentioned and suggested by several online turtle communities only because I was not about to take the time to sit and quote published literary and scientific papers in an e-mail message.

I can assure you that I am most certainly not an animal rights fanatic. I will refrain from stating my rather passionate opinion of organizations such as PETA and the impact they have on legitimately pursued animal rights activism as I do not believe this forums moderator would appreciate the use of more colorful metaphors.

I do completely understand your desire to verify sources and would be willing to open up my personal history for your review should you have any concerns. You are welcome to call me, Mr. Heiser has my phone number, or even stop by my home. I'm usually there as I work from home.

My educational background is in comparative zoology and conservation biology however, these are fields I have be estranged from since entering Information Technology 10 years ago.

Sincerely,
Phil Kohler

Hi,

Please don't take any offense, I am just being somewhat careful after having had some terrible experiences with people who have contacted me on-line related to herps. Furthermore, I was not questioning your motives, hope it did not sound that way. I realize that JH offered the membership to you. No problem there at all by me. I am just trying to ascertain your credentials for writing such a care sheet.

I appreciate your filling me on on your education; and appreciate your wanting to critique and improve the care sheet. Thanks
Best regards,
Glenn B

Hi,

I take no offense. I completely understand your motives and would have advised you to pursue such motives were I on your end. In this day and age it is extremely important to know exactly who and what you are dealing with especially when you are confronted with an individual in an intangible sense. As a member or administrator of a group, deciding on who to "trust" (I dont know if that is the correct term) is extremely nerveracking since your every decision could lead to a distressing encounter or situation.

Being a former business owner, I completely respect this posting and expected it. I can relate to you stories, now funny in retrospect, of some of the efforts I made to hunt down information to verify sources.

The important issue is, as you said, ascertaining whether or not I am qualified to rewrite your caresheet. I've been thinking about this a lot myself. Admittedly I have been 10 years out of the natural sciences and this has lead me to question that myself. But I will go to bat for this project and I will produce the best product I can for your group no strings attached.

-phil