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Posted by meagan on May 31, 1999 at 20:03:05:
In Reply to: Sunday Comic posted by Argiope on May 31, 1999 at 12:51:58:
mr.guran:
an iguana is a living creature, something that you obviously know little about . which leaves me clueless as to why you would write in your comic the pros and cons of owning such an animal when you know nothing of what owning this animal would entail. you are leading the public in thinking that these are easy to care for animals. obvioulsy you don`t own an iguana ( and if you most unfortuantely do, then it must be a very wretchedly sick animal), otherwise you would know better than to include such poorly supported claims in your column. let me just go through step by step and point out the misinformation you have put out there in your column:
1) "IGUANAS ARE NOT TAKEN FROM THE WILD. THEY ARE A FARMED SPECIES BRED FOR PET OWNERSHIP."
i don`t know where you found this bit of info, or maybe you just made it up, i ahve no idea. yes in fact they are very much so taken from the wild. hundreds of thousands of iguanas are imported from countries like El Salvador and other central american countries every year. while it is true that there are some breeders here in america, they are rare. as to why they are rare, it is simple. iguanas are not easy to care for, they are very delicate animals. a breeder would not ahve the money or the time to keep them healthy enough to succesfully breed. most of the iguanas that we have are from "farms" ( if you really could consider it a farm in the corect sense of the word) in these central american countries. these farms consist of a fenced off area of rainforest where hundreds of thousands of WILD iguanas are caught and put into this area until they are imported to america for sale. the iguanas that are for sale in pet shops were either born in the wild and then CAUGHT in the wild, or the pregnant female was CAUGHT in the WILD and then layed her eggs which were incubated and hatched at these so called farms you speak of. this is hardly the situation you potray to your readers about iguana farms.
2) "IGUANAS ARE VERY TAME"
once again mr guran you have proved your ignorance. iguanas are WILD animals, with the instincts and responses of a wild animal. they are not quickly, easily or painlessly tamed. most iguana owners complain that taming an iguana is a time consuming (often taking months to be successful) and painful experience due to the aggressive behaviors iguanas can exhibit (biting, tail whipping, crocodile rolls, hissing, etc). iguanas are NOT docile creatures. to them, we are a predator and because of this thinking, they act aggressively towards us in our attempts to handle them.
"IGUANAS WON`T PLAY FETCH UNLESS YOU ENJOY THROWING LETTUCE."
your half witted humor about iguanas fetching lettuce is hardly getting a chuckle here. iguanas should never be offered such a poor source of nutrition at any time, including when you teach him stupid pet tricks.
"IGUANAS HAVE WEAK LIMBS, SO JUMP ROPE IS OUT OF THE QUESTION."
obviously you have not been engaged with a struggling iguana. their limbs are anything but weak , mr guran. you must not have ever seen an iguana scale a vertical wall within a few seconds, or seen them dash across a floor at top speed. i assure you that their legs are indeed very strong. maybe not for jump rope as you say, but niether can an ostrich jump rope. does this mean that ostriches as well have weak limbs? of course not, we know that these birds have powerful enough legs to out run us and even seriously injure (if not kill) us with one kick.
i don`t know what your goal in writing this information and having it published in a column that looks to me as if it is directed towards young children is. if you honestly think that a young child is capable of caring for one of these lizards successfully, you are sadly mistaken.
instead of putting cons in there that were no more than a bit of fluff to fill out your comic strip, maybe you should have included some of the real cons that exsist to owning a wild animal like an iguana. for one, they grow to be 5 feet long and over. most people are not capable of dealing with a lizard this size, especially a child. or how about the fact that iguanas can transmit the salmonella bacteria, and that young children and elderly people would be the most seriously affected by this bacteria. another con to a child being a caretaker for such an animal. iguanas are also very expensive to own. they require special equipment and food requirements, as well as time requirements on the caretakers behalf. given that children generally have very short attention spans ( and very shallow pockets), this is yet another con to children owning iguanas.
because of this misguided information that you ahve already published, i would like to request that you do another column and print correct information about iguanas. i am also requesting that you make an apology about the unfounded claims you ahve made regarding these animals and include the web address for NIAD ( national iguana awareness day) in your publication so people will have access to some correct information for the animal that your columns advice may be responsible for them owning. i don`t know why you would even feel comfortable publishing information that you had so poorly researched mr guran. if this was a research paper, you would get an F.
sincerely,
meagan
www.niad.org (niad web site address)
: If you are like me you did not see the sunday comic that has been causing such problems. Someone forwarded me a scanned copy so I uploaded it onto the old niad page so people could look at it.
: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2218/sshagg.jpg
: There is an e-mail address on the bottom of the comic - think it is in our best interest to e-mail the author, point out the problems with his viewpoint, and ask for an update stating why iguanas are not the easy pets he is making them out to be.
