The owner of the Animal Company is essentially not really willing
to compromise. He and his friend, Claudia from The Basic Bird in Berkeley,
are both very antagonistic, looking for confrontation and eager to distort
facts and statements to their favor. While they say they agree to
"education' they are not really willing to do anything different, since they
already feel like they know it all and don't want rescues "telling them what
to do". They feel that putting up a flyer in their store about a rescue
group is doing enough.
Recommendation: If possible isolate them. Position them as hardliners vs.
other more workable stores. These two are the "leaders" and the people who
are causing the majority of ill will and creating PR opportunities for
Personally, I think it's a big mistake to focus so much time and energy on
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Philip Gerrie
Date: Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: Working Group Update August 6 10PM
To: SaveABunny@aol.com
Cc: Rose Harris , "Elliot M. Katz DVM" ,
Elizabeth Young , Sally Stephens <
stephensfw@mindspring.com>, Pam Hemphill , Kim
Flaherty , Kat.Brown@sfgov.org, jchick73@yahoo.com,
Teresa Murphy
I agree with Marcy's comments.
I suggest getting the word out about the next ACWC meeting coming up this
Thursday at 5:30 room 408 at City Hall to those that would like to see a
ban. Last month the Animal Company was out in numbers. We should also stop
by local pet supply stores to hear what they think and for them to possibly
come to speak at the meeting.
The phone book has listings of pet stores and pet supply stores.
Thanks, Philip
On Aug 6, 2010, at 9:54 PM, SaveABunny@aol.com wrote:
HI all,
After sitting in on the meeting today with the pet store owners trying to
determine if a compromise was possible versus a complete ban on the sale of
animals, here's my impressions (for what they are worth):
themselves as the victims.
trying to placate the very few stores that DO sell animals. The majority of
stores in SF do not sell animals. This very important point is being lost in
the mind of the public and the media as it seems like a large number of
small businesses are being penalized somehow and that's simply not true.
Kat, is it possible to get some statistics on the number of stores that do
or do not sell animals?
While a workable compromise with education would be nice, I do not think
that will happen without some sort of oversight---based on the lack of
current educational info being given out by these stores. Just because
someone has been in business for 30 years, it doesn't equate to knowing
updated or proper care for the animals.
In summary, I think a strong strategy would be to approach the majority of
stores that do NOT sell animals to get them to help back a ban. Being able
to demonstrate that it's possible to be profitable as a pet store without
selling animals is key and is an excellent discussion to use in PR. Nothing
would be more powerful than having the backing of a significant number of
pet store owners in SF.
Thanks again everyone for being such a great advocate for the animals,
Marcy Schaaf
Founder, SaveABunny
www.saveabunny.org
www.saveabunny.etsy.com
415-388-2790
"A New Generation of Rabbit Rescue"
Save A Bunny. Save A Life.
--
Elizabeth
Until they all have homes, don't buy, don't breed- adopt.
www.RescueReport.org
www.MickaCoo.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGjyooh3Yo0