Quote:
Originally Posted by dustinntech
I do not understand why there were so many people regarded so highly in this community that were promoting this event in the first place. We need everyone to know of the responsible hobbyists yet the biggest people in the industry are showing off the irresponsible.
instead of everyone promoting a party, why dont you go promote something that is educating the public about the responsible side of this hobby.
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While some may see that as the politically correct perspective, I think it's a defeatist mentality. It's only seen as "irresponsible" since someone ended up dying. That's not something that really could have been anticipated. Some are so quick to shoulder their reptile lobbyist banners and walk on eggshells for fear of how the straights will choose to see us. If it's come to that, we've already lost; lost sight of a big part of why we started keeping reptiles in the first place: that it used to be fun.
We got some sense of enjoyment out of keeping our weird pets, and "god" forbid, maybe showing them off a bit. Of course, this event was meant to be a public spectacle, but I don't think that that needs to be seen as a bad thing. It was a gathering and celebration of what we once loved, before it became so much more the norm to look down on us for our hobby. There's a whole society of people who, based on nothing more than fear and lack of understanding, would love to pigeonhole us into the lunatic fringe.
While we may not be able to do much to change their deep-seated revulsion for our pets, I don't think we should be so quick to seemingly validate their views by willingly skulking away into self-imposed exile. Hiding our animals behind closed doors like some shameful secret. You can only keep handing over so much power before you'll soon realize that you have none left for yourself. I think that's exactly what we'd be doing, by living our own lives according to others' standards, while having precious little respect for our own.