At 01:12 PM 8/8/00 -0500, Tasha Rieck wrote:
><<<If you HAVE to ship to get rid of your excess gerbil pups, you are
>breeding too much and irresponsibly.>>
>
>I disagree. It also depends on your area, and if there is a market for
>gerbil pups.
Uh, yes, that would be my point.
>So maybe some breeders should only have one pair, because
>there is no market for gerbils in their area...that's their choice. If
>they CHOOSE to have more pairs, because they want to ship, that's ALSO
>their option.
Just because you can choose to do something, doesn't mean I can't choose
to think you're being irresponsible when you do it. Freedom of choice
doesn't mean freedom from someone else's opinion.
> Each breeder who ships takes it on themselves, and it does not
>affect others on this list, but the way this "war" is going, you'd think
>it did.
It affects the welfare of the gerbils. If someone were breeding their
gerbils primarily for snake food on this list, and it was a known thing,
you think people would keep their mouths shut about it because it is that
person's legal choice to do so?
[BTW, two of the major contributors to the original list, a married
couple, did indeed start breeding gerbils as food for their snakes.]
>(yes, I understand the law states it's illegal, but did you also know that
>it's illegal in Georgia to walk around on a Sunday with an ice cream cone
>in your back pocket? Some laws are taken less seriously than others)
This law is much more serious than some of these ridiculous old blue
laws, it has been prosecuted before, and comparing it to the blue laws
is just a straw man argument.
>is just going
>to upset people who ship.
Wah. Tough noogies. You don't get to go through life never being
upset by an opinion, and I'm not going to sit on my hands for that
reason, either. One of the consequences of publicly doing something
illegal is you're going to face censure for your actions, legally or
just culturally. If you can't handle that consequence, that's hardly
anyone's problem but your's. (General you for the hypothetical upset
shipping people.)
>However, if I want to
>get new colors, I have to have them shipped in, because there aren't any
>gerbils breeders in Eau Claire.
I believe I stated that shipping LEGALLY with the relays and what-not
was a legitimate reason to ship, IMO. Nothing is a legitimate reason
to ship illegally.
>The main point is to just let
>people decide for themselves what they want to do with their
>gerbils...shipping or not.
Posting my opinion is not making anyone's decision for them. It's
not preventing anyone from making a decision, which happens to be
beyond my capabilities. Posting my opinion is exactly that, posting
my opinion. Which I have ever right to do, whether the people who
read the messages want to read my opinion or not.
If people are truly convinced it's a safe, legal, moral or whatever
thing to do, then my opinion won't matter one bit, now will it? And
should cause no guilty feelings, now should it? And if it does, well,
then maybe the problem doesn't lie with me. I still stand by my
statement that if you have to resort to illegal means to distribute
your excess gerbils, you're breeding irresponsibly.
Michelle
Flutist
