From: "Evergreen Gerbils Ltd." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| Who do you think you are anyway? Some sort of self-proclaimed gerbil
| shipping vigilante? You've said your piece, some care, some couldn't
care
| less. Get down off your soapbox and get over yourself.
|
'Scuse me, Will. Several things:
** Who a gangi is is a commercial critters breeder, just like you. She
has a lot of experience. She does not ship animals and many other experts
won't either. Many do, including a highly respected breeder over here at
this end of your state and mine.
** Shipping is a controversial issue, and never will be settled by
totally stopping it or totally accepting it. Thus, GML will discuss it
periodically for the sake of informing everyone of the pros and the cons.
** Some people have minds made up firmly, one way or the other. Most,
however, need the education we get from these discussions. The personal
decision affects both a shipper and a shipee.
** a gangi posted the original note, providing info about risks to
animals (health, stress, even their lives); and about risks to humans
(legal consequences). a gangi had a typo that made it seem she was
exaggerating; and she implied that every first-time offender will go to
prison for 10 years. Later she corrected those mis-impressions. Her
facts are correct IMHO.
** Two repliers quickly agreed with a gangi: Deb Rebel is another
experienced commercial critter breeder. I'm just an amateur and only an
accidental breeder, and the only new info I added was about how the
official regulations came about. The regulations are in place because of
animal lovers like us -- not because of some arbitrary government
bureaucrat.
** You and others replied angrily that nobody was going to curtail YOUR
rights to do whatever you want. You offered an anecdote about how helpful
postal workers are, including bringing your arrived gerbils to work when
you left a note on your door at home. You failed to mention that you live
in a small university town. Some readers might get the wrong impression.
Surely you won't hope for special post office treatment if you lived in,
say, Chicago.
** I chose not to remind GML about the gerbils who were lost in shipping
for about 3 days last winter, because the allegedly experienced GML
shipper made a stupid mistake. Those gerbils didn't die as they made
their way from Texas to Virginia, but stress isn't good for animals
either. If a gangi's message prevents just one incident like that, then
it's worth GML's time IMHO.
** As I've said, there are experienced breeders who have good reasons to
ship gerbils and know how to do it with maximum safety. There also are
some fairly casual and inexperienced people who tell us how much they love
animals, and the next day ship or receive gerbils for no essential
purpose.
** To repeat: some people have their minds made up, one way or another.
The rest of us try to have open minds and to learn.
