Mr. Cynic speaks up ................

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Posted by cwatbay on January 12, 2003 at 10:23:00:

In Reply to: CA Press:4-H'ers love their cold-blooded pets posted by desiree on January 11, 2003 at 21:50:19:

Perhaps one of the reasons I am commenting on the contents of this post ( not the post itself of course ), is because I know where Fairfield is and have been there many times. It is an ag town, even though it has grown into a really large suburban center.

I read through the article and I looked for "responsible" care of the animals. I didn't see it.

I looked for learning about proper husbandry, diet, care, heating and light - maybe not exactly in great detail - but anything that alluded to it. Nope, nothing there either.

Now, maybe I an totally wrong, and its too early in the morning or I am just a cynic, but:

The newsworthiness (sic ?) of the story is that in a predominantly farm area, these kids have reptiles as pets, instead of cows, chickens, goats, pigs, horses, sheep and so forth and so on. That's basically it.

I guess the picture I am getting is that this is middle class America, in a suburb with kids that think reptiles are "cool" and I don't see responsible parent involvement anywhere.

The fact that the kids are making statements that: they want all their friends to get 'em, "I want a really big iguana so I can take it on walks", the fact that the girl has the BD on her head as she zips down the road on her scooter-carries it around and smuggles it into places ..........

To me it sounds like the latest kid "fad" in Fairfield. And I don't think this article is goign to help things.

To me, on a certain level, it continues to propogate the situation of non-involved parent responsibility, parents letting kids buy whatever they want - because it's only "a lizard" and if it dies, "we'll just buy another one". It seems to me that this forum might get lucky enough to have a whole slew of newbie posts from Fairfield about "how come my ig died so soon" or "is a 10 gallon aquarium too big ?".

Again, maybe I am totally off base; but this article just seems to support a whole bunch of bad situations that we have seen over and over again.

Follow Ups:

4 H stands for head, heart, hands, and health Cheris 01/12/03 (0)
I second that notion.... =) (more) aysel 01/12/03 (0)
Re: Mr. Cynic speaks up ................ xta 01/12/03 (0)
You? A Cynic CW? ....Nahhhhh mr. D 01/12/03 (0)
I Agree 100%. n/p blud63 01/12/03 (0)