Now that I have your attention, something has been bothering me lately. As of late there have become an inordinate amount of people running their mouth about USARK and what they are doing for our niche community. People post and question their lobbying efforts and want to know where this or that dollar went and so on. I am not invalidating wanting more accurate reporting of expenditures. I for one do not agree with USARK 100% on everything they do or how they do things as an organization. There seems to be a large factor that many people are forgetting about.
Who else is fighting for us? Is there another entity that is being invited to testify in front of congress? In case you’re unaware as I was, you can only testify when you’re invited. PIJAC to my knowledge has been riding the coat tails of USARK on the reptile issues. So can you name another organization that is showing congress a united front when it comes to not only reptiles but exotic animals in a broader stance? I know I personally cannot.
I am not asking you to donate 10% of your income to the church of USARK. I donate & I will continue to do so. Again this is not to say that I agree with all of USARK activities etc. I will say this though, until there comes a time when you have a personal invite to congress to represent the thousands of reptile keepers who don’t get invited or acquire enough money to file a formal lawsuit against the US Government.
SHUT UP AND DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY BESIDES WHINE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING SOMETHING!
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Premium Supporters
I also donate merely because I love chameleons and snakes. I want us to continue to have the right to keep them as pets. politics and corruption is everywhere. There’s just nothing we can do with that that will completely get rid of it. But we can’t just stay quiet. Haters gotta hate.
Right on, John! The people that are hating USARK the most are the ones who didn’t lift a finger to help keep our rights and reptiles. I challenge any one of you haters to do a better job lobbying for the reptile community than Andrew and staff. We have a H-U-G-E uphill battle ahead of us, and we need to stand united and do our parts individually. Complacency will get only more restrictive legislation passed. Use the finger you are pointing at USARK and put it on the click of your computer’s mouse to let our law makers know what we think about this.
Right on John! I too will continue to throw money at USARK as it looks like they are doing ‘something’!
I actually read a blog on kingsnake from a person that would sell his own collection and give a 100% to USARK if it would enable them to help us more. He also went on to say that there are reptile people that have ‘millions’ of dollars in morphs in their facility, but instead of talking on YouTube, simply using that production money towards making a donation would make more sense.
I believe half of ‘our’ community is looking to make some big money because of the ban. Unfortunately I believe this ban was created to give us enough rope to hang ourselves. People on Facebook are talking shipping and selling regardless of state line laws.
If I could preserve our hobby without any restrictions, I too would donate or sell my whole collection and rebuild again, even though I’m 58 and might not get another 20 years!
Please donate and refresh your membership, regardless of your personal opinions, we need USARK, and they need us! We are all in this together!
Cheryl Bott
I completely agree! It is time to get united and STAY united. In all honesty…why is there 2 different organizations fighting for our support dollars. They really should unite and fight these efforts together! Great perspective John.
Exactly Andy! PIJAC really has rallied behind USARK on this so we need to support those who are behind us not bicker and moan about what dollar went where! Stop the legislation first, fix the issues we already have. After that, if people still have issues address them directly but let’s clean up our act first before we lose all of the privileges we have. Thanks for taking the time to drop by and comment we appreciate it.
Damn right! I am trying to make an effort myself, but until congress invites me, I will make my donation and share my opinion. Thanks for the article John!
Kevin, it’s like politics to me unless you’re voting don’t complain. So unless you’re doing something that USARK isn’t don’t try to tear them down. This is about unity right now!