Why Don't People Know How To Do Research? *bit of a rant*

[Jazi]

Questions are one thing... everyone asks questions and everyone makes mistakes. It happens, nothing to worry about. I'm certainly not above asking questions that I can't answer myself with a quick look around the wonderful lifesaver that is Google.

But what spurred this on are a couple threads from a different site I frequent (non-herp). People going on this place and asking for advice, but not taking it if it'll cost them too much money or if they think it's too much effort, and then their animals suffer.

Someone recently lost their beardie after only having him for a month, said his cage was "too cold" although apparently they had 5 heat lamps lined up on the top, bathed him daily, had him on sand, and had no idea that he needed to eat anything other than crickets. Oh, and no thermostat, dimmer, or thermometers as "oh I just feel the sand to see if it's hot enough". Now, this person had been asking for advice all month and it was pretty obvious that the little guy was failing fast... sluggish, laying upside down all the time, not eating, breathing heavy... and multiple times people who are more versed in lizards than I told her exactly what needed to be done and gave her plenty of caresheets to read through. She didn't give a reason for not following their directions other than "oh, well he seems fine today". Now she wants another beardie as she claims something obviously must have been wrong before she got him.

Another person has a ksb and a corn which are both kept on sand, no thermometers, no hydrometers, no thermostats, and neither has eaten in the past 5 months. KSB has poo that "looks like rotten eggs". I urged them to get thermometers with probes and put them on aspen as I didn't know the full story when they first asked for advice, they switched the substrate and bought one thermometer. Found out the ksb's aspen is reaching levels of 100+ but the corn's got only a level of 72, which makes me think the corn has absolutely no heating element at all considering that's my apartment's ambient. I've urged them to get a thermostat over the past 2 weeks and they've still got no idea what I'm talking about even though I've linked them several times to hydrofarm and hermstat.

And finally an acquaintance of mine has an rtb (which she claims is a hypo jungle monster tail that she got for $100) that sheds weekly, is about 9 months old, eats one adult mouse weekly, and only 230g, which she used to cohab with another rtb and some bps. She had at one point ~11 or more, I think once she claimed she had 15-20, and all of them except the above mentioned rtb are now somehow "gone". She's changed her story several times... her parents released them because they thought they were venomous, her parents rehomed them, her parents sold them while she was on vacation... Did I mention that she had no concept of locking clips ("oh they won't move from their nice warm tank"), thermostat, and absolutely refuses to take her snakes to the vet when they're showing signs of not being okay? Oh, and you can't give her advice on what to do with her snake because you're just being mean and purposely upsetting her for no reason.

Of course, this is the same forum that someone had an outside kitten that was fairly obviously dying due to having gotten into poison that they refused to take to the vet but instead let suffer overnight until they found it dead in the morning. I don't know if I should say "at least it's not restricted to herps" or if I should just be appalled by the lack of understanding on how to be a good pet owner.

All of these are things that are pretty easy to solve if someone just looks into the pet they're getting before they buy it. It just really frustrates me to see these animals very obviously not doing well and being limited on what I can say on a forum, so I'm not allowed to outright say that it's largely the owner's fault. Especially when several people tell them what to do to make the symptoms stop happening and they continue on without following any of the advice given anyway. Maybe it's just because I've been raised in a city of farmers where you don't really have a choice whether or not you research the livestock before you get it, you have to provide specialized equipment whether you like it or not, and so I've never been without the mentality that that sort of thinking applies to pets as well. Sad to see not everyone sees it that way.

[Cameron Lamb Exotics]

I cant understand with the tech. today why people cant simply type into google, yahoo, or any other search engine. Its really not that hard to get the right information these days.

[Ohlacey]

I don't know why people seek advice if they aren't willing to take it. And why keep an animal in the first place if you're not so inclined to do absolutely everything to keep that animal thriving in it's respective simulated environment?

Ugh. I hope some of these people you've mentioned have a bit of a reality check soon, before more animals die or get lost because no one will take any accountability.

[Bill T]

People are normally inherently lazy and if the pet is going to cost more than they first thought they try to find ways around it. I totally agree that people should research the animal before they get it but we cannot controll others actions. I was unaware of alot of things when i was gifted my first BP. I hunkered down and watched hours and hours of snake bytes on youtube and i learned alot quickly. The best u can do is just keep reminding them the animal has specific needs and can possible die if he/she denies it the care it deserves. Best of luck.

[Ashleigh91]

This simply fuels my belief that there are many people out there who should not be allowed to keep animals at all...

[satomi325]

Many people think they're an expert to an animal before they even get one. These types of people probably just know the animal in passing or seeing it displayed in the petstore with no further research. They say, "Oh! My set up looks exactly like the stores" without knowing heat pads need regulation or that cage/ambient temps are important too....

These types of people are so ignorant in their ways, they refuse to listen to others for help because "they have no faults".

This is just like people who get a puppy because it's cute without realizing it's going to become big and out of control without the proper training and responsible ownership.

I truly wish you luck on trying to help those people. I would send a few caresheets to the bearded dragon girl specifically. Maybe send her to a bearded dragon forum....
Clearly she's the reason it died. Hopefully she won't kill the next one, but i'm not to optimistic from what you described about her. Maybe after the next one dies, she'll get a clue......... -_________-*

[kitedemon]

I have seen it all before it is sad and heart breaking to listen to posts about this or that and to repeatedly say your temps or what ever are wrong! Only to have it fall on deaf ear. I understand the rant and would stand beside you ranting but sadly it does no good. There are some whom cannot bare responsibility for anything, let alone an animal!

[Slim]

I think that sometimes in our effort to be family friendly and accomodating, we hold back from telling people like it really is. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to type, "Listen to what I'm saying, you little window licker, before you kill your pet!"

The same restraint keeps me from asking how they plan to kill the next one when they show back up on the boards with a new animal.

One of my first Air Force supervisors told me that he could always fix dumb with the proper application of training, but that stupid was terminal and could never be fixed... Took me a long time to figure out that he was right.

[dr del]

Heh,

The problem is, if people get told it the way it is, they tend to leave before anyone can explain why and get the animal the help it needs.

We sometimes forget that, while we can see the reasoning behind the advice given, someone straight out of petsmart with a starter kit and zero experience is likely to think some of it is absurd or actually cruel.

It takes quite a lot of convincing for people to "get" that some ball pythons don't want a 5 foot enclosure and will be happier in a tupperware box. To someone with only cat, dog or rodent experience it seems actively cruel and unusual to keep it like that.

Also the fact there are many ways to keep these animals is confusing.

We recommend a very simple, basic method that will work in 99% of cases until the user gets the confidence and experience to want to try mixing things up.

But if they read how VPI keep their BP's first we seem to be contradicting some of the best keepers out there with decades of specialised knowledge.

Does any of this ramble make sense?


dr del

[Jazi]

People are normally inherently lazy and if the pet is going to cost more than they first thought they try to find ways around it. I totally agree that people should research the animal before they get it but we cannot controll others actions. I was unaware of alot of things when i was gifted my first BP. I hunkered down and watched hours and hours of snake bytes on youtube and i learned alot quickly. The best u can do is just keep reminding them the animal has specific needs and can possible die if he/she denies it the care it deserves. Best of luck.

While it's always best to research before getting a pet, the difference between you and them is that you realized "oh, I kind of need to know this" and learned what you needed to know These people are asking the right questions, but doing too little too late if they do anything at all because they don't like the answers.