04/05/2024
I like fish. Fish don't hurt me, fish are my friends. People freaking suck.
I've been dealing with a lot of crap, but especially around the rescue. It's hard to rescue animals with a 50% success rate. It's because there is no veterinary support for fish, it's just me and the piles of literature that I have to read through and understand before I can even begin a treatment.
So, yesterday I made a post on a page basically saying "hey, I'm here, I am able to help if you have a large aggressive or dangerous fish that needs a home." I was met with hate from one of the moderators of the group.
"Knowing you and your associates, I wouldn't trust you with a goldfish cracker."
I can honestly say I've never heard that from someone else. Inside my own head? Sure, all the time, almost constantly on bad days, actually almost word for word, minus the associates part.
So I decided to take it down, take a deep breath, and make another post a bit later to figure out what's going on.
And... I got my answer.
See picture below.
I am colleagues with Meadow Dawn a taxidermist who preserves exotic animals, insects, and other general oddities that aren't necessarily my taste, but skill recognizes skill, and she has true talent.
Definitely check her out.
The accusation here is that I'm taking in animals, killing them, and then giving or selling them to her to be preserved and sold.
This is... Honestly so insane that I really don't have words for it. Yes. What I do has a high failure rate, I'll be the first to admit that, but I don't sell the cadavers off, most especially because I have strict disposal requirements for bodies that have been exposed to antibiotics and other drugs.
I incinerate them to prevent bacteria spreading into the local ecosystem, with strict handling procedures to prevent contamination of any kind.
Yes, I'm sure embalming fluids would prevent that same spread, but I'm not about to take that risk.
As such, I have not given a single cadaver to Meadow
the second part is... Well... I don't like to air out dirty laundry, especially on this page, but if you've met me in person, you'll know that I'm critical of unethical fish sales. Selling fish like pacu, common Plecos, even red Oscars is, in my opinion, an incredibly unethical practice.
As a rescue worker, the largest tank I've ever seen was 300 gallons, that is half of the minimum requirement for a pacu, which needs 600 gallons minimum to be comfortable.
Shovelnose catfish require 1,200 gallons minimum.
I always tell people to take the minimum size requirements of a species and double it, that way they're comfortable in their tank.
I have seen all of the species I've listed above at a local pet shop called Joe's pet Place, and in person I've been very critical of their practices.
I spoke with Deananne about their stock, and her defence was "well how do you know people don't have a tank large enough?"
I don't. But I know that I've only ever seen three tanks over 100 gallons in the area, and statistically not a lot of people are going to be at the top of that curve.
Second "sometimes our supplier just adds these animals to our order, and we have to sell them."
I've done retail ordering, that's not how it works, and if a supplier sent me animals I didn't order, I'd be finding a new supplier.
Deananne, the owner of Joe's, pulled me aside one day and asked me about Kyle Jones my good friend and business partner. She told me he was stealing rescues from Ivan's, that he was stealing business from her, and basically was abusing my organization's name for his own benefit.
I confronted him on these accusations, and found that not only were none of them true, he was only rescuing reptiles, animals that I couldn't take in anyway, but was also placing them with people he trusted, not selling them as she had claimed. Further, he was not stealing her business, but rather selling feeder rats to people when Joe's ran out of stock, because he was the supplier for all of their feeder rodents.
Kyle decided to leave Joe's, for what I hope are obvious reasons.
I'm making this information public Because of the second comment from this person "if the rumors from the pet shop weren't true."
There are only two pet shops in my area, Petco, who recently changed their ordering policy to only smaller community fish for ethical reasons, and Joe's.
I didn't want to use my platform and my following to hurt another business, especially because I would just rather have these issues out in private.
However, these issues have been brought to a public stage, and my credibility as a rescuer is being threatened, I cannot allow that to happen, so I'm using my platform to make one statement about all of this, so I can get back to rescuing the animals that I love.
I don't kill my rescues to be sold as a taxidermy. I don't know why that isn't excruciatingly obvious, but here we are. I'll answer any questions in the comments.
Thank you.
