Re: I almost forgot......

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Posted by jld on November 01, 2002 at 09:03:36:

In Reply to: Re: I almost forgot...... posted by PHFaust on October 31, 2002 at 23:02:09:

:That is truely a shame that people do not know of the PIJAC. The pet store that I deal with on a regular basis recently learned of the group. I had obtained a few of their Practice Safe Rex posters. they have since contacted the group about additional reptile and small animal related information. Animal wise, they deal with rescues pretty exclusivly. Right now they have room for maybe one more iguana. But i digress, from what i have seen in pet trade magazines this group seems reasonably reptile friendly if not a bit outdated, and willing to help increase proper knowledge and captive care info.

:Cindy
:PHFaust

Yeah, it does SEEM that way doesn't it?!?!? The "Practice Safe Rex" campaign, that was done jointly with the CDC, has been discontinued and according to PIJAC the CDC has the rights to the posters and will not allow anymore to be made. When we made our initial contact with PIJAC, they happily sent out the posters and were kind enough to send a long a copy of their "training" manual for reptiles which I was told is roughly 10 years outdated but they use anyway. PIJAC isn't reptile exclusive by a longshot! They have "training" programs for many other catagories of pets. I have to wonder if the rest of their "training" programs are as outdated as their reptile program.

The VERY sad thing is, whenever I have seen a PIJAC Certificate proudly displayed in a store, I can never find anyone that can tell me anything about it. That makes the certificate worthless as far as I am concerned -just another trip, good PR, whatever you would like to call it.

The bottom line is, I found Marshall Meyers'(executive vice president of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council)statement, if it truely was his statement and not some media twisted version of what he said (do they do that??!?! lol) COMPLETELY OUT OF LINE and I know about a thousand other legitimate specialty rescues across the country that would agree with me. The only reason I am even giving him the benefit of the doubt in regards to his "statement", is that there are other inconsistancies in the article. For example, it says NH has laws banning "the private possession of exotic animals, usually large cats, wolves, bears, primates and dangerous reptiles", that statement on the whole is largely incorrect!! NH, where the motto is "Live Free or Die", unfortunately bans nothing, we have permit systems here. Just an FYI -to date no one in the state has obtained a permit to keep venomous species.

So, I for one will not defend PIJAC because I have seen them do NOTHING to deserve being defended.

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