A Challenge - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

[Skiploder]

the majority of organizations are funded by big business, thats just how it is. the problem is not that usark is underfunded by its "constituents", the problem is that USARK never went after more big business which has a good piece of skin in the picture and have tons to lose if things go south for the herp industry. that there is the big problem, your point of money where the mouth is all fine and dandy but the REAL money is going after corporate sponsors. I appreciate your post but i cant disagree with it any more. youre missing the problem by a mile a long mile.

Wrong on almost all accounts. The one bone I will throw you is that USARK should be going hard after corporate dollars, but that is even flawed in the sense that the number of viable sponsors is small compared with other special interest groups. ZooMed, Exo-Terra, Zilla and maybe a few more - how much money do you think you can squeeze from them?

Last time I checked, none of those companies were making a ton of money off of varanids, giant constrictors and hots. The bread and butter of the big businesses in the herp world are your corn snakes, your ball pythons, leopard geckoes and bearded dragons. You put the governance and influence of USARK in the hands of corporations whose interests are the garden variety "safe" herps and you have a recipe for disaster. It is imperative that the individual members of this hobby put their money where their mouths are and donate.

The annual revenue for HSUS is somewhere north of $125M and perusing their tax forms quickly shows you that a giant chunk of that comes from their mail in campaigns - not big business.

Some of the most effective and powerful lobbying groups are funded by individual donations - think the big unions. Big unions go toe to toe with big business on both the federal and local levels and do just fine. How do I know - at one point I was heavily involved in both Operators Local No. 3 and the AGC - one a labor union and one a collection of heavy contractors. Local 3 has tremendous clout in California and does so primarily from the backs of their individual members.

California has a ballot measure that crops up every few years - sponsored by big business - that seeks to limit the amount of donations taken in by the labor unions. These propositions are funded by some of the biggest corporations in the country and they are soundly defeated year after year by the unions and the individual constituents. Overestimate the power of corporations and underestimate the power of the individual at your own risk.

SEIU is another national labor union that is one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington and get a huge amount of their war chest from their individual members.

The ugly truth is that private individual donations to USARK have been low. USARK takes in about $300K a year and HSUS takes in over $125M. If you think a handful of reptile specific corporation are going to bridge that gap, you are dead wrong. If you think that the mainstream reptile specific "big businesses" have a lot of skin to lose if retics, burms, large monitors and hots get specific legislation, you are wrong.

People, you can either hope someone else chips in to defend your specific rights or you can sack up and do it yourself. I would suggest the latter.