#iceyfrog

Alright, there’s a lot to unpack here, but hopefully I can make you and others with similar feelings and struggles feel better. 

My number one piece of advice is: it is completely okay to just walk away - from an anti zoo statement, person, etc. When it comes down to the heart of it, we are hardworking underpaid people in a physically and emotionally exhausting career. We do good work every single day. You do not have to single-handedly fight back every yahoo posting “should they really be in cages” or “#EmptyTheTanks” - we would all burn out completely. Defending our field is a team sport. There are many people, including lots of users on tumblr that I interact with, who have the emotional ability and are willing to do the labor to defend zoos/aquariums/etc. under certain circumstances. In my personal life I try to step up when I can to do the same. This is a shared battle. Sometimes you might feel you can have a productive conversation and actually help, sometimes you might be too tired and have to tap out. That is okay. We all have to take care of ourselves first sometimes. It is a real anti-activism tactic to try and flood people with so much to fight against that they burn out and give up. Pick your battles and put yourself first. Because when you DO feel up to it and you are defending zoos to the best of your ability, that will be a much more productive conversation.

The second piece of advice / insight is one that took me years to fully grasp and is still something I have to remind myself of. Most anti-zoo people are vastly misinformed, but will not be convinced by facts that try to inform them. The first half of this statement makes me feel better in a way, because I realize these vehement anti-zoo activists are objecting to things that aren’t even real. Examples are: we take every single one of our animals from the wild (as adults, so they remember the wild and they miss it), we physically torture our animals to force them to do ‘tricks’, we harm or mutilate them for our gain, all of our animals are "sad” and don’t receive any enrichment or stimulus... etc. None of these are true, but I’ve met people who believe every one of those things are 100% real. So when I hear their objections and try to talk to them, I realize hey, my work is actually pretty valid and my animals are living fulfilling lives - they aren’t going through any of these extreme tortures that this person is objecting to in the first place. The second half is disheartening, but becoming more common in all fields of activism (and is a whole different conversation anyways.) Basically, you can link to every article about conservation, show them dozens of species saved by zoos, show them the biggest no-bars-here sprawling zoo exhibit you can think of... and a lot of people will still be more convinced by a single edited photo of a “sad” polar bear lying at the edge of a concrete pool. There’s only so much you can do in that case. 

Both of these things add up to: this isn’t a personal attack, because these attacks are based in misinformation and emotion, not any valid critiques of our jobs as zookeepers. 

Series No.1 - Lil’ Imps!

OK, it’s been a while! So this is my original species I posted about here! All of the little ones are made of polymer clay and are hand-painted. They are about 1-2 inches- tiny fellas! I also made 4 plushie versions, and you can see my hand for scale in one pic.

I brought them to a local convention, and ended up selling 13 of 23 little ones and one plushie! This was a test for me to see if real-life “adoptables” are something people would be interested in, and it looks like the answer is yes!

Funguary day ??

It’s time! Introducing my original species, Lil’ Imps!

This will be a unique species in that it is OPEN for 2D media, but closed for 3D, physical media. For now, adoptables of this species are actually real, physical figures you can place in your home! Pics of the real things to come later!

Hey FR peeps out there, I just opened an Art Shop on the forums for dragon portraits! I drew up these two for myself as examples! Models: Iroh and Ambra