[FONT="]Stingrays just absolutely fascinate me. Saw quite a few when I was a kid in Hawaii. Recently I put my name on the list for volunteers at “Stingray Bay” at the local zoo. It doesn’t look like I’m going to make it this year before the zoo closes for the winter. With the length of the waiting list, there are several stingray freaks out there.[/FONT]
Time to take down
- Thread starter Miles
- Start date
VLDesign;2070386; said:
VLDesign;2075165; said:
Although we were one of the biggest sponsors, we were not the organizer of the event and therefore had no control over what happened. There were a lot of factors involved causing changes in the itinerary. Despite this, it still ended up being great.
i was told the zooological society was not happy about the raffle as they didnt want rays going to just any person... also there was not the expected amount of people... and other factors... it didnt happen owell its not why i was going to go... it showed when it was cancelled that it was the main reason alot of people were going to go...
VLDesign;2075165; said:
One should know both sides of the story before placing judgement on anything...
If you really want the whole story, you should talk to Richard Ross, but here are some things to consider
* Everyone expected a lot more interest from the hobbyist community than there actually was. The raffle was geared towards this group of attendees and when not that many materialized it was moved to Shedd so that Richard did not have to loose as much money out of his own pocket. A hotel meeting space has a lot more room than Shedd could provide. Everyone who attended can verify that the space was pretty tight. Absolutely no room to set up tanks to keep rays.
*The AZA accreditation standards do have guidelines about how it's member institutions should place animals. The welfare of these animals is important, and a raffle does not allow one to access the ability of raffle winner to care for an animal that any of you who have kept rays will admit are not a 'beginner fish', so in that sense you are correct, but this is a much larger issue. If anyone wants to know more I'd suggest you look on AZA's website. That said, this was not a AZA conference and this was not the reason that rays were not raffled off.
*The website for the symposium had not been updated for quite a while- I believe the origional site was still listed. Perhaps that could have been different, but I think (hope) that the incredibly dedicated group of people that I got to meet at event were there to learn, which I think we all did.
*If you have complaints about this perhaps you would be better off contacting the symposium organizer
* Everyone expected a lot more interest from the hobbyist community than there actually was. The raffle was geared towards this group of attendees and when not that many materialized it was moved to Shedd so that Richard did not have to loose as much money out of his own pocket. A hotel meeting space has a lot more room than Shedd could provide. Everyone who attended can verify that the space was pretty tight. Absolutely no room to set up tanks to keep rays.
*The AZA accreditation standards do have guidelines about how it's member institutions should place animals. The welfare of these animals is important, and a raffle does not allow one to access the ability of raffle winner to care for an animal that any of you who have kept rays will admit are not a 'beginner fish', so in that sense you are correct, but this is a much larger issue. If anyone wants to know more I'd suggest you look on AZA's website. That said, this was not a AZA conference and this was not the reason that rays were not raffled off.
*The website for the symposium had not been updated for quite a while- I believe the origional site was still listed. Perhaps that could have been different, but I think (hope) that the incredibly dedicated group of people that I got to meet at event were there to learn, which I think we all did.
*If you have complaints about this perhaps you would be better off contacting the symposium organizer
well for those complaining its too late... and doesnt matter... personally i like the fact it didnt happen and would prefer that way in the future as well... rays on display would be nice but im looking forward to another one to learn more... not win a stingray
