What have YOU personally done TODAY to fight HR669? It is not enough to think that somebody else will do it, and it is not enough to do it once, and then sit back thinking you've done your part.

From nohr669.com:
# 9,729 unique people have come to www.nohr669.com and signed up with their name, address, and email to send an email to their Representative.
# 10,878 emails have been sent.
Do the math, that is only 1149 duplicate emails that have been sent. That is a VERY small number of people that are sending an email more than once, considering I know myself and at least a few others are emailing every day.

Any my guess is that people that don't care about this enough to send more than one email, don't care enough to make a phone call, or send in the letters on paper. Over 10 thousand emails is a great response, but we could be doing so much more.

Here is what I have done today:
1) - emailed my rep through nohr669.com, but I re-wrote the email so maybe the aides who have by now seen hundreds of these identical emails might pay a little more attention to mine.
2) - called my rep and spoke to an aide
3) - re-read the entire text of the bill (again), to be sure I really know what I am talking about when I talk to people
4) - made phone calls to about half a dozen local pet stores
5) - made phone calls to about a dozen alpaca farms until I finally found one who said they would get the word out through their national association

Still on my to-do list for today:
1) - put up craigslist ads in areas served by the reps on the subcommittee. See this post for details: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showp...8&postcount=17
2) - print up more letters & get other people's signatures

If you think somebody else is going to do it for you, consider this. I called about 10 alpaca breeders most of whom basically blew me off, sure I had no idea what I was talking about, sure if it would actually affect them, they'd have heard about it already. Their livelihood is in danger, but they aren't going to do anything about it. I got mixed results calling the pet stores too. One guy who owns an aquarium store told me that he'd let Petsmart & Petco fight it for him, because they have the resources to do so. When I pointed out that PETA and HSUS are the ones supporting this bill, and they have just as many resources, he said now he knew I was lying, because those organizations aren't concerned about fish (he obviously didn't listen when I said it wasn't just fish), they just want people to stop killing animals for fur. Um...hello? Since when was that the only issue PETA and HSUS care about?

Ugh. So yeah, there are lots of people out there that SHOULD be doing something that aren't. So you better make sure you do your share. Please do!

Also, please post in this thread, because after a string of not very enthusiastic reactions like that, it is hard to keep up the momentum, so I could use hearing some positive stories!