PETA: 7 Reasons Why You Should Never Buy a Hermit Crab

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 7:16 am

7 Reasons Why You Should Never Buy a Hermit Crabhttp://www.peta.org/living/com...ver-buy-hermi ... ****Here's an article by PETA. Everything they say is factually true. They left out the part about how crabs are thought to be lackadaisical about returning the affection that we bestow upon them.Well, Azazul returns affection, but then maybe she is not an ordinary crab. I would do it all again if I had the choice. And I would not say that about my last girlfriend, so that ~is~ saying something. But I swear, if Azazul becomes a riot girl she's out of here too.And here's a crab racing festival.http://www.beachstreetusa.com/...ermit-crab-challenge

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:22 pm

@Keg, back in the 90's Peta used to be a pretty credible animal rights group but they changed hands around 2002 and became a huge laughing stock in the animal rights community.What really put Peta on the map as having gone off the rails on a crazy train was the week they spent releasing captive animals back into their wild habitats.They did this with hampsters releasing them just in time for the hawkes to come in for an easy meal which was all captured on camera and to top it off they didn't even release them on the right continent.Moving forward to the day that they took a large group of Purple Pinchers out to a tiny island near the Grand Banks and released them just in time for the cold snowy weather to hit which esstentially wiped out the entire group of hermitcrabs that they'd so valiantly released back into the wild. If they'd had their facts straight on the hermitcrabs they would have released them in the Fl Keys at the very least that would have been kinder than dumping them out in area so far north of where they actually come from that they froze to death.If Peta actually knew anything about the animals they were releasing they would have known that domesticated farm bred rabbits and hampsters wouldn't make it 24hrs out in the wild as these captive bred animals don't have the same survival instincts from birth as their wild counterparts and they would have known not to release a thousand hampsters in upstate NewYork.lolI think the act that sums them up as an organization the best is when they called the whitehouse to complain about the POTUS swatting and killing a fly on national television, they even insisted that the President make a formal appology to the nation for killing the fly they said that the fly had a life and deserved to live it... Peta is a joke and they did this to themselves this is why nobody takes them seriously anymore though I did find the article pretty interesting as far as I read it.There are so many good animal rights groups out there like the SPCA and the Humane Society that I don't even pay attention to the inane rantings of Peta anymore.lol

Nnnnnnnn · Post by **Nnnnnnnn** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:03 am

People Eating Tasty Animals.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:32 am

quote:Originally posted by noswad0208:People Eating Tasty Animals. I knew there was a saying that I liked that went with that I just couldn't remember what it was at the time.

CollegeCrabber · Post by **CollegeCrabber** » Fri May 08, 2015 5:13 pm

@Crabber85, thanks for the info about PETA. I just recently came across the organization while researching to transition to a healthy vegetarian diet. I had no idea that they were not a very credible organization. But over the course of my research, I did find several good books and documentaries about transitioning to vegetarianism the right way, so I don't really need PETA anyway.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:49 am

Good luck with your veggie diet. You definitely want to do it the right way cuz you'll need all the energy you can get being in college.

CollegeCrabber · Post by **CollegeCrabber** » Tue May 12, 2015 3:31 pm

quote:Originally posted by jenok:Good luck with your veggie diet. You definitely want to do it the right way cuz you'll need all the energy you can get being in college. Thank you, jenok! I'm planning on doing my research and taking it slow so I will do it the right way. Like, I haven't been eating beef or pork but I'm still eating chicken and fish for now. I also got a book called "No Meat Athlete" (because I run cross country and track for my college) that has been immensely helpful so far.

Nnnnnnnn · Post by **Nnnnnnnn** » Tue May 26, 2015 2:29 am

Here's an example of how credible PETA is.. That, by the way, is nothing close to what a sheep looks like when it's sheared.THIS is what a sheep looks like when it's sheared. It may get a couple cuts, but it never looks like what PETA wants people to believe. Now, THIS is what happens when a sheep isn't sheared for a while.. When a sheep gets like that ^ they can get overheated, stuck in brush, and it makes it hard for them to move well, all of which can lead to the sheep's death.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue May 26, 2015 8:41 am

@Dawson, yeah they do these PR stunts every so often to stir up controversy but they only end up making themselves look dumber each time.As you can tell I'm not a fan of PETA and think that they need to go out of business because they aren't doing anyone or anything any good they are just a waste of time, money and space...

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Sat May 30, 2015 5:03 am

@CollegcrabberAbout the vegetarian diet...A few years ago I was eating meat by the handfulls and I thought that was great at the time. But I started really running into health problems.Now, I'm into something called the "Anti-inflammatory diet." I'm doing much better with it. Plenty of information available online about that, although not as well organized as a book.I started noticing how I feel after eating various things. I wasn't making the connection between cause and effect. It's not that I'm particularly dumb, but more because I was in the military; Since I didn't have much control over what I had to eat, there wasn't much sense in complaining. I just did the best I could and drove on.Nowadays, I notice problems eating soy. It's in almost all prepared foods, so I just eat fresh vegetables, fish and fruit. This is exactly what the dietitian from the Veteran's Administration told me to eat. But at the time, I was thinking "Yeah right! No one could live on that." So I said I'd try, but I was lying.So now I eat very healthy. I don't have much alternative. Otherwise I'll be in physical pain.It doesn't have anything to do with PETA. But even though I'm stuck with seafood, I still wouldn't eat crabs. That would be wrong.Bottom line is, the anti-inflammatory version of vegetarianism works, in my opinion. I have plenty of energy and feel good. I should have been doing this from day one.I can't say what it does for weight or athletic performance, but I will start working on those parameters in the near future.

Jackolope · Post by **Jackolope** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:37 pm

Noswad0208 wrote:Here's an example of how credible PETA is.. That, by the way, is nothing close to what a sheep looks like when it's sheared.THIS is what a sheep looks like when it's sheared. It may get a couple cuts, but it never looks like what PETA wants people to believe. Now, THIS is what happens when a sheep isn't sheared for a while.. When a sheep gets like that ^ they can get overheated, stuck in brush, and it makes it hard for them to move well, all of which can lead to the sheep's death.

The sheep in the last picture actually escaped from it's pen and was on the run for several months. When the owners found it, she looked like this. They have since sheared the sheep but her wool was probably too matted to use. No shepherd works so hard to have their sheep die. It doesn't make sense to kill a sheep for its wool, when they can make you more wool and for many years. With a sheep costing close to $1000 a head or more depending on the breed, no you don't go killing a sheep every time it's sheared. PETA...you stupid.

Jackolope · Post by **Jackolope** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:02 pm

Here is my reply to this. Now while I can't speak for every store down the shore, my friend owns a shell shop and we take care of crabs every year, often fostering and re-adopting out crabs left to us. We never EVER use painted shells. We have fair prices and the crab always goes to the new home with a long guide pamphlet of how to take care of it based on the proper way. We educate people and we also steer them away from other shops in the area that treat them poorly. I won't name names.

1. More or less true, many of the ones we sell actually lived with us for at least a year before they are sold. Some this year were taken in after people could not keep them anymore.
2. True. We always sell them in pairs or ask if they have a friend. However, if the customer has purchased them from another store than ours, we can almost always guarantee they are sickly because other shops never care about the crabs like we do. So we ask they are quarantined from each other until it is safe for both to interact. This way bacteria can't spread to the healthy crab.
3. My Big Oliver was 14 when he died, Sophie was 13. My friend has a crab that is still alive and kicking at 22 years old. I currently have two new kids who have both survived 2 years with me so far. Out of the ones we have sold, the oldest is currently 13 and he started off as a little guy. Your argument is invalid.
4. Ummm...no. Purple pincers can keep water in their shells for just such an occasion, and do instinctively. Most crab owners have humidity control in their tanks. If you have a more tropical species of crab they may need higher humidity more often. PPs can survive for quite a long time outside a tank. There was a case of a crab escaping his cage and surviving on dog food for a year and a half until he was found and placed back in a more suitable tank.
5. And that's why you don't by painted shells or use tap water.
6. Hermits release a hormone that will hold off molting until it is safe, however over time this hormone can essentially poison the crab and when it's time to molt make it very difficult. Scientists, however, have stated that 86% of deaths in crustaceans (all of them) happens during or because of a molt. It's just a hard time for them. I found success when my crabs show signs of molting to give them lots of high protein based meals such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, etc. before they molt and after they come back up.
7. Sad but not just because of shell companies, but tourism taking the shells from the beach and from environmental factors endangering the snails that originally are in the shells. Let us not forget there was an animal inside the shell before the crab. I never buy crabs, I adopt, and though we sell them, all the ones we sell are with us for about a year or two before they get adopted out. About 60% are fosters from previous homes. So yeah, good karma.

PETA isn't completely wrong here, however literally all of these needed to include the fact that a big part of the trade comes out of China, especially the painted shells.

angelbear · Post by **angelbear** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:35 am

The article itself was made with the good of mind. However, don't most proper pet owners research their pets before they get them. Then you don't run into some of the problems her cage had. Plus I find it ironic that the author advocates for no hermit crabs for pets, but gives you a care guide.

Post by **wodesorel** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:22 am

Having been here for several years, even the best intentioned people and wonderful pet owners get sucked into the "easy pet" trap of hermit crabs. They're too far outside of any of the major circles - they aren't a dog or cat, they aren't a pocket pet, they aren't a reptile, they aren't fish, etc. They do not come up in conversation with other pet people and when you don't know to look then you don't look first.

And I actually lean towards hermits not being good pets even though I'm on here giving care advice.

Once someone has them, it's too late to save them so the only thing that can be done is to make sure that they're cared for properly.

Sweet Pea · Post by **Sweet Pea** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 1:34 pm

We'll said wodesorel.

HCA: Hermit Crab Association