Quote:
My question to ya'll is why are you guys so upset with the arnolds besides their shows are small???
|
Wow. Not sure where to start but I will do my best to make a long, drawn out story shorter.
My husband and I used to do the Arnold's shows in the late 1990's, in fact, my husband helped them organize the first few shows they ever promoted, and gave them a several thousand name mailing list. In return, we never paid for a table at their shows. I will put that right out in the open.
I think it was the spring show of 2001 that started it all. That's when they started allowing wild caught animals to be sold at their shows. The condition of some of the animals that were on the tables for sale was questionable at best, and downright disgusting at worst. Obviously sick, skinny, mite infested animals, and I personally saw more than one DEAD animal on a table. My husband and I (as well as some of the other breeders) spoke to Bonnie about our concerns several times, and nothing was ever done about it, in fact, it got worse wih each new show.
The DFW Herp Society was a sponsor of the Texas Reptile Expos back then, and at that time my husband and myself were both on the Board of Directors of the herp society. US, along with every other board member unanimously voted to disassociate our herp society from the Texas Reptile Expos. That really pissed Bonnie and James off and at that time, and instead of maybe listening to some of the criticism regarding her shows, she decided to ban all DFW Herp Society board members from attending them.
Shortly after that happened, Carl Franklin decided to put on a new herp show in the DFW area which was to be captive bred only. Most (if not all) of the breeders signed on to participate in Carl's show. Breeders, not brokers. Anyway, Bonnie decided to ban any of her vendors that did Carl's show from ever coming back to her shows. Again, rather than trying to make a change for the better in her shows, she chose to shut the good, captive breeders out of her shows just because they wanted to try a different show.
All of those reasons above are reason why I dislike the Arnolds, but the biggest reason of all is what happened in November of 2002. I was in San Marcos (near San Antonio) visiting a friend, and we decided to go check out the Venomous Show there that is put on by TRE. I had spoken with Bonnie on the phone for almost an hour just a couple months before that, and I honestly thought bygones were bygones and it would be no big deal for me to go to the show. Well, I was wrong and as soon as she saw me she got up and screamed (no exageration) "What the **** are you doing here? You get the **** out!". So I turned around to leave and as I was walking out she followed me, all the while spouting obscenities and shouting that everyone there hated me. Then she actually shoved me. I turned around and told her she better not ever put her hands on me again, and then we left.
I guess that bout covers why I dislike them.