When I checked her out a couple of years ago (everyone seemed to be directing people to her care sheets). She had almost no experience with herps. I think she did own a Green Iguana at the time.
She tells antecdotal stories about animals she claims to own or have owned in the past... Just from some of the things she's said, I have been given the impression that there are numerous iguanas (Enough so that they're beating the living hell out of one another due to space constraints anyway... that's when melissa isn't beating the hell out of them herself to "show them who's boss" and "train them"), a few tortoises and she claims to have kept a whopping five species of snake (and that her burm and bullsnake came when called like a dog and that her burm would sit on the microwave when it was hungry, because that's where rats came from... and she refused to understand that burms don't eat because they're hungry, they eat because there's food).
All in all though, I frankly doubt she has even SEEN half the animals she has "caresheets" on, much less owned them or had any responsibility for their care.
She's fair at gathering information on the web, which is where most or all of her stuff comes from. None of it is from personal experience or training as far as I could tell.
The web, older TFH publications, a lot of VosJolie's stuff (And VosJolie is the same kind of plagarist Kraplan is, so God only knows who wrote it to begin with) and some things she has other people write FOR her... The article about how reptiles all die in captivity and can't ever be made to live a full life span by her "noted expert" and somehow she has a good body of work by Adam Britton... I suspect because they have, at some point, the same publisher. Britton's association is almost painful to see though, it'd be like reading a BOI thread where Louie Porras was vouching for Upstate Exotics (Just makes no sense why someone credible would help absolute scum).
She's a plagarist of the worst kind though, of that there is no question, changing information to make it appear to be original... usually changing something questionable to begin with into something even worse.
She claims that if you point out these mistakes, she'd be happy to correct them. I've pointed out a number of the more glaring ones countless times, usually on public forums and all I got was AOL TOS violations for "Attacking" a Moderator. It's not difficult to see the mistakes, open any page she's got and at least two or three jump out as being glaring... Read any of them carefully and there are literally dozens in some of them, even a few with NOTHING correct whatsoever. You can usually tell how much of it she wrote herself by the number of mistakes too... original pieces are pure garbage, plagarized and paraphrased are slightly less obvious.
The most insidious (spelling?) factor in the way she operates is her target audience. She
WANTS people to have dead animals,
ANTS them to get monkeypox and salmonella and have sick kids and scars from bites because it makes them support her anti-pet trade agenda. So she takes the groups least able to detect Bull#### and fills their heads with this absolute CRAP "information" and then just sits back as they come around to her perverse way of thinking.
Why are iguana owners, as a generalization, insane or stupid (Not everyone of course, but Erin hit the nail on the head on that score) when it comes to herps... and self righteous madmen to boot? Because iguana owners, speaking again as a generalization, are people who have never before owned a reptile in their life... bought "Iguanas for dummies" and decided they could care for one easily... here's a crappy diet that's easy to put together, crappy reccomendations about caging and free roaming and preventing agression, all sprinkled liberally with Kraplan's "Reptiles are dee DEBIL!" messages. So they free roam their iguana, it gets MBD from lack of proper lighting, has digestive and formative problems from lack of humidity and heat and deficates all over their bookshelves so they get some nasty stomach problems, then rips their fingers off because... Well, they're iguanas and it's instinctual, making faces and head bobbing back at 'em doesn't fix the problem. All of which leaves them believing Kraplan's PETA style propaganda.
She gets the new keepers because of her website and self promoting nonsense... Do a search on a herp species, or a general health issue using any of the major search engines... her site comes up in the top ten hits on virtually any of 'em. She sits on KS in the forum most likely to attract people who are filled with an honest ignorance and she twists their minds, even more so on the AOL forums where there *were* hundred respons plus threads about how your iguana loves you like a dog and your snake, despite having only rudimentary internal timpanums that don't actually have nerves connecting them to the brain, will come slithering at the sound of a can opener (for free roaming burms, really safe practice right there).
And most of all by selling her book through Petsmart and Petco, which she then turns around and campaigns against. Just a [sarcasm] bit [/sarcasm] hypocritical.
She attacks the uninformed in the hobby and permanantly ruins them, taking individuals who could have been worthwhile, productive and active herpers and turning them into a group filled with a permanant and unyeilding ignorance that makes contributions to the A.L.F. legal defense fund.
Got a question for Rich...
Would it be appropriate to use the web watch forum to discuss the specifics of care sheets avaliable online? The validity of some, the problems with others, posting both good ones found on specific subjects and the ones to avoid (And possibly suggest emailing the person responsible with suggested corrections and, of course, to participate in the thread if they'd like to take constructive critisism or debate the specifics)?
On the one hand, if links are provided rather than copying and pasting the text, there's no copyright issues and it could potentially lead to more of those Non-BOI threads that I believe were the intention behind many of those extra forums... by presenting different care sheets, both good and bad, it provides a foot in the door for additional discussion or debate on the topic.
On the other, it would involve discussing specific websites, which is, in some manners, a function of the BOI... but obviously not a BOI topic because of the nature of the discussions. Since a full name is required everywhere now, there would be no anonymous postings...
Your choice; if you'll allow it I could quite happily make dozens of posts on assorted topics with both good and bad web resources for specific species or groups and I'm sure others would be happy to participate as well, either promulgating their own care sheets and opening them up for discussion or dropping some warnings on websites to avoid. Like the BOI, any website that's being discussed specifically, either positive or negative should have a link provided to the thread if they wish to participate.
