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Melissa Kaplan -- Know thy enemy

HerpVenue

HerpVenue

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A346-2003Jul29.html

Heidi Prescott:, national director of the Fund for Animals, headquartered in Silver Spring. "We certainly would like to see a total ban of exotic pets nationwide,"


Melissa Kaplan:"I'd like to see a total ban, but I know that is unlikely. It isn't easy to fight a billion-dollar industry. As long as there are people to buy, exotic animal dealers will cheerfully sell, no matter what the impact is on wild populations or on the animals -- or humans."


One of those is a wonderful quote from a person I believe to be a moderator at kingsnake. But I promise not to say who she is (melissa).................Let the truth come out.
 
Melissa Kaplan, an environmental educator in Northern California and co-author of "Iguanas for Dummies," says outbreaks like monkeypox tend to be too limited to spur broad action on the exotics trade. Imports of all East African rodents have been banned, as were sales of pet turtles under four inches in the late '70s after it was determined that 14 percent of the 2 million salmonella cases each year were due to the cute creatures. "That's 280,000 people, mostly children, sick every year," she says. But, "unfortunately, I think the monkeypox scare is just going to be a brief blip on the screen."
Click to expand...

Look at the bold.
Read between the lines.

let me tell you what the first bold says TO ME
Darn. Darn Double Darn. This monkey pox thing is not big enough to try and ban the ownership of ALL exotics.

Let me tell you what the second bold says to me.
I wish this monkey pox thing would kill a couple people....that way it can become big enough to spur some ban legislation on ownership of animals.

but that is what it says to me.
 
OMG! Is that not the same Melissa Kaplan who is a well-respected and honored authority in the field of reptiles?
Click to expand...

Respected? Honored? Authority?

Not by anyone who really cares about keeping herps.
 
Sybella said:
OMG! Is that not the same Melissa Kaplan who is a well-respected and honored authority in the field of reptiles?
Click to expand...


never heard the words well respected and honored with this name in a long time... ugghh.. I don't like that woman!
 
Ah yes, ol' melissa, self proclaimed expert on everything animal related. She will tell you out one side of her mouth how to care for your animal(not necessarily the right information, but she'll express her opinion none-the-less) and then tell her peta buddies that all animals as pets should be banned.

DO NOT TRUST THIS PERSON!!!!!

While I have not had personal interaction, other than to laugh at some of the advice she's given to others, my brother has. This woman is BAD news for all of us who keep and want to continue keeping our reptile friends.

Wes Pollock
 
I Have an Idea

I'll feed my 125 lb Shepard lettuce for a week and then invite M K into my house to liberate him back to the wild. Her PETA friends are welcome too. They can explain to him how he would be better off in the wild trying to fend off Parvo ,Distemper and Rabies. Oh and let us not forget the West Nile Virus. Gee, How did that get here? A human on a Plane? I think we should outlaw all International Flights.LOL. And hey MK call your Burm 'cause he can "HEAR YOU" LMFAO. THE MONSTER won't hurt the snake but you guys better bring him a soybean burger cause he'll be mighty hungry. WTF!!! Get a FL!
Rithie please go back to "SAVE A COW EAT A VEGETARIAN" or at least a "VEGAN"
There are good vegetarians out there and they know who they are, I bet they will not take offense.
Later, Rob
:angry:
 
Hey

We all supposedly keep animals in such a crappy environment and don't meet their needs. They are supposedly suffering in our care. So how in the world do we get this?

Government needs to know the Facts. Not Fairy Tales
 

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And here I thought that she actually knew something about reptiles. Jeez I guess anyone can pretend!!:confused:
 
So she abhors the billion dollar exotic pet industry, huh? Then why does she work as a moderator for Kingsnake and make her living peddling cheesy reptile care books?

As long as there are people to buy, exotic animal dealers will cheerfully sell, no matter what the impact is on wild populations or on the animals -- or humans."
Click to expand...

Yup, and as long as Melissa continues to sell her iguana care books (that are full of misinformation) at every Petco in the country, kids will continue to purchase them no matter how poorly suited they are as a beginner herp.
....I mean it is called "Iguanas For Dummies"
a better title might be "Iguanas by Hypocrites"
 
You know, I thought she owned a collection of herps herself.

So does that mean if they ban herp keeping, she will get to keep hers and be an on-a-pedestal herp keeper?

Seems to me like some of these big-timers need to get off their high horse and realize they are not the only herp keepers out there-nor will they be-ever. Banning herps is not the way to go; educating people on the care of herps is the only thing to do.

Sorry, just getting sick of asking honest questions on forums like hers because I actually CARE for my herps and getting told 'you shouldn't own a herp' or just being ignored altogether unless I'm a "well-known breeder" or someone famous like her.

*shrug*

Maybe they think I'm going to take their business away from them-but that is definitely NOT what I'm into herp keeping for, yes I breed them, but I'm careful who I sell to, I'm honest about the quality of the animal, and I'm not in it for just the $ (although it would be nice to make something back :p)

-cat
 
Seems to me like some of these big-timers need to get off their high horse and realize they are not the only herp keepers out there-nor will they be-ever.
Click to expand...
1. If you are reffering to the breeders. I do not think they like the idea of the ban. (But I can't really speak for them)

2. If you are referring to melissa. She is just an animal rights activist that owns some pets. Not big time. She published some stuff and wrote some pages on the internet... It does not make her big time. Saying she is big time is like saying I too am big time. I am just a normal guy who loves my pets. She is just a normal girl who is out to get owning of reptiles banned. But she is doing with the disgues of being a reptiles lover like us.

She is a wolf in sheeps clothing.
She is infected with the Bann all reptiles virus.
And she is slowly infecting other reptile keepers out there.
 
I know this if off of the topic, but I agree with Clara about posting on some of the forums out there. I get the same feeling about the treatment from certain people. Just because we are new to this, we are not STUPID. We all love our pets, and maybe we have questions, but the only way to learn is ask. Most of the time we get ignored or get sarcastic answers. That keeps us from asking, and therefore we can't learn. Maybe some of the senior herpers need to realize that they weren't born knowing everything, they had to learn somewhere. That is all we "newbies" are trying to do. LEARN!!!
 
Bear in mind that the 'being ignored' may not be intentional. I get TONS of emails this time of year, but this is right in the thick of egg hatching season when I am at my busiest. I, and probably many others in the same boat, just do not have the time to spend answering every email.

The ones that would require the longest amount of time to answer would be the least likely to be answered. No kidding, I have gotten emails from people saying something along the lines of: "I am really getting interested in corn snakes. Could you tell me everything I need to know in order to be successful with them?"

Keep it in mind that people working with live animals will often have priorities that if failed to be kept, animals will suffer or die.
 
Rich, I totally understand where you are coming from. I am not talking about emailing breeders to ask them questions. I am talking about posting on some of the forums like this one. I don't just email people to ask questions, that is what I thought forums like this and the others are for. By the way, you have some gorgeous corns, and you will probably hear from me in the near future, about purchasing from you. (when I save up some more snake money) :D
 
Paula,

In the case of forums, it is probably just a case of forum burnout for most breeders whom have been active on the net for a while. There probably aren't very many questions a new person will ask that the top breeders haven't already answered dozens of times each and every year. Every Spring brings the flood of "How do I get my animals to breed?", "how do I know she is gravid?", and "How long does it take them to lay the eggs?" Then comes the "My snake is egg bound! What do I do?". Followed by "How do I know if an egg is good or not?" and "How long will it take them to hatch?" Finally we get the "My snake won't eat? What tricks can I try?", and the flood of "My snake escaped! Where should I look for it?"

Just like clockwork, every year. Many people just get tired of answering the same questions year after year.

This is particularly a problem with linear threaded sites where the topics are not segregated well, or the search engine utilized is pretty lame.

I set up this site with a structure to allow the various groups of animals to be further segregated into logical groups of topics that most people are likely to want to concentrate their discussions in. This is working pretty well in my CornSnakes.com forums, but here it is rather underutilized. So far I have been unable to figure out why people are reluctant to post much in the discussion forums here. But my design is for the forums to be repository of information for those people seeking it, and not so much areas to BS about general topics. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't.

Anyway, this is getting way off topic here. There are other forums for this sort of discussion.
 
Sorry, just getting sick of asking honest questions on forums like hers because I actually CARE for my herps and getting told 'you shouldn't own a herp' or just being ignored altogether unless I'm a "well-known breeder" or someone famous like her.
Click to expand...

hold up.

melissa has a forum?
Where? can I have a link?
thanks
 
Ritchie. Try posting on the AOL reptile message forum / board / TOS MACHINE, Um Mk will love to TOS you just as she has many others who have tried to post there with good advice and questions.I once asked what the qualifications of the moderators were to be giving out " MEDICAL " advice and amazingly i was tossed. If you choose to post there have fun reading the tos letters you get back.

Scott Bice
 
Posted on the KS Boa forum, in response to "RitchieAnul" by "jeffb"

After searching all of Melissa's web site and articles I have yet to find one place on the internet or in any literature that
Melissa Kaplan has written where she advocated a total or partial ban on reptiles or exotic pets.

All I can find are comments made by others attributed to Melissa
Kaplan, but never in my 7 years of knowing Melissa have I ever heard or seen her advocate such a ban, support such a ban, or recommend such a ban. Just because someone said she said something or she is "quoted" by others does not make it a fact.

Melissa is a volunteer at this site. This business survives because of the trade in reptiles and exotic animals. If Melissa was the animal rights activist others claim then how can her
volunteering here be explained?

Melissas comments, as were many others quoted in the article, were in fact taken out of context, and were used specifically to meet the reporters agenda. Had any of you been
there to be quoted in the same article, you too would have
been cast as either an animal rights activist or a slack jawed
yokel reptile owner.

I don't expect to change your mind, nor do I care too, I know the truth, and I know that people will continue to believe what they want, but I will point out that making libelous or slanderous comments about others on this web site is a violation of our terms of service, as are personal attacks, and neither will be tolerated.
 
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