HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Since our county fair season is starting up now, I am wondering if there is any way to completely stop the giving away of hermit crabs as prizes in kids' games. The goldfish are bad enough, but in the last couple of years the fair coordinators have decided to add hermit crabs as the latest gimmick to bring in the money. I guess that I am wondering if there is any legal loophole that would allow this practice to stop.Here is a copy of the law that I thought might pertain to my situation (thank you, Julia Crab, for the link to this!):Title: (Crimes & Offenses Specific Offenses/ Offenses Against Public Order) 5511.1 Live animals as prizes Year: 1994,amended 1998 Summary: Prohibits giving away or offering to give away any live animal as a prize in any drawing, lottery, contest, sweepstakes or other game selling or offering to sell any live animal in conjunction with any drawing, lottery, contest, sweepstakes or other game Exceptions: fish any domestic animal in connection with any agricultural, educational or vocational program sponsored or sanctioned by the Dept of Agriculture Dog Law (PL 784, No. 225), enacted December 7, 1982 Penalty: Summary Offense, maximum $250 fine © 2004 The ASPCAAny thoughts or suggestions? The state fair is in late September, and they are the biggest offenders in this practice.

Contact the ASPCA and make sure they are aware of the existence of the fair and the fact that animals are given away as prizes. In the UK, it has been illegal for some time to give any animal as a prize, but it still happens at fairs because there is no-one present to police the prizes on offer or the practice of giving animals as prizes. If the ASPCA can put a couple of representatives on site for the fair, they should be able to gather enough evidence to at least fine the stallholders giving animals as prizes - hopefully that will make them think twice about the practice in the future.

It would be awesome to stop this. I know for a fact that sevral little hermies have sufferd horrible fates after being won by kids. they think they are neat and cool; but they and there parents don't learn how to take care of them. I remember about three years ago i was at a festival with my sis and her B-friend and there two little ones won hermies the B-friend who is anti animal of any kind offered to step on them so as to not have to worry about them. so i offer to take them home my mom and went out and bought a ton of stuff for these guys, i researched on the web for care info since i hadn't had any since i was a little kid. and we provided the best home possible they only lived a week and i said well thats it no more i hate watching animals die and i blamed myself for them dying when i now know that i did everything right and it was the conditions they came from that caused them to die. I have seen hermies at every festival and fair in my area for the las three years and out of all theose times only one festival cared properly for them and handed out care sheets and a shopping list. this should be stopped. I have also noticed they are now giving bunnys away at the festivals too. its just sickening.

i have never seen them give away crabs as prizes before. our fair has fish one year a few years back but that is all.i know the way they treat the petting zoo is horrible!this year they had a zebra in a cage he could barely turn around in and a lil kangaroo looking thing(not sure what kind of animal it was) and a giant turtle in a cage, the kangaroo look alike looked like it was almost dead from the heat!they also had a camel and a lot of goats and their enclosure didn't look too big...it's sad cuz i know someone who used to travel with the fair and they never stop! so those poor animals are constantly on the road and in those bad conditions!it makes me sick.they also had pig races. i tend to stay away from that petting zoo and just go over to the 4-H exhibits cuz they have goats, pigs,cows, sheep, horses, bunnies and other small animals and i know they take care of them properly cuz i was in the small animal divison for 4 years when i was a child and did the fair every year.people have tried to better the conditions but i guess from where they travel they are gone before anything is really done.

i started a petition to stop this please spread the word the link is http://www.petitiononline.com/hermies/petition.html

racetripper1577, that is awesome! I just signed. I hope you can let the other hermit crab forums know of this petition. You can send a link to http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com and http://www.hermitcrabsrus.com. If anyone else knows of any other crab forums that would be interested, please post a link. I will contact our state ASPCA. This has really energized me and I am hopeful that changes can be made.

I don't see why any animal wouldn't have the same right to a humane life just because it isn't "cute". Sickening. I think Iowa just passed a law prohibiting live animals of any kind as fair prizes, it would be great if all states did this, but it still probably wouldn't be well enforced.

This is terrible! As if these poor hermit crabs don't get treated badly enough at the pet store...it's just horrible that people would even accept them as prizes. Here are some things that you might want to do...Since, judging by the law that you posted, it is illegal for hermits to be given away as prizes, the next time you witness this happening at the fair make sure to call the police immediately. Make sure to inform the person or persons giving away the hermits that they are breaking the law, and that you fully plan to report them to the proper authorities if they continue. Everybody's posting about contacting the ASPCA is an excellent idea. Hopefully, between your activism and the ASPCA, you can get these people to stop giving the crabs away as prizes.Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to help you all out!

I wish you luck in stopping this! All of you guys are great and I have to commend you all. People can be so cruel, insensitive, and careless towards animals, "cute" or not. I was very pleased when they took down the mall kiosk at our local mall that sold Hermit Crabs. The poor crabs, all stressed out with no humidity maintanance, bright lights shining on them, people picking them up and dropping them all day... and better yet I found out when the mall closed at night, the employee would throw all the hermit crabs overnight into a critter carrier altogether! I was horrified. I really didn't know what to do, if I knew I even could do anything- to stop it. Luckily, someone did.Once again I commend you all, it is people like you that make a difference =)

In Taiwan we would have games of netting fish out of a little pool and when we would net then we get one as a prize from off the self while the others we caught were thrown back into the pool to be caught again. I netted like twenty of the ****ers because they were so slow and weak, probably tired of being netted every day. I can see how much those fish suffered that I refused to take a fish and I made my cousin give back his fish since we had hours to walk and I knew it wouldn't survive. Carnival fish never live that long and I can't imagine it any better for crabs. It makes me sick when somebody offers life that need so much care and love to anybody on the street and worse when they don't even offer a caresheet. To me its like handing my own baby off the street to a seven year old as a prize.

Great news! I just heard back from the veternarian from our Dept. of Agriculture (my fourth phone call!), which issues the permits for the fairs to give away animals as prizes. She said that absolutely it is illegal in our state to give away hermit crabs as prizes, and she will intervene to make sure that this does not happen again. She is friends with someone on the state fair board and said that this should not have occurred in the past, that only fish are legally allowed as prizes (although she agreed with me that even fish shouldn't be allowed!) It looks as if the hermit crabs were snuck in without a permit. Yay! Let's hope that this is the last incident for our state fair. Please pray/send good wishes that this was successful. The crabs deserve so much better than this.Thank you to all that helped me and supported me.