The Hermit Crab And The Power of Marketing

byJDelVecchio

273 followers

11 years ago

If your child is looking to have a dog or cat but need to learn responsibility, hermit crabs make the perfect first pet. They're simple to take care of; they need to be fed with water added. They have their own distinct personalities and characteristics, making them entertaining and educational.

When you buy a hermit crab, you empower sellers to strip them of their family, take them out of their habitat, and imprison them. While hermit crabs can live up to 30 years in their own habitats, they usually die within a year as pets; their skin needs to shed within natural sand and they're not able to do so in the small confines of their "home." The environment in your home is toxic as tap water is not their natural drinking water.

I recently read a PETA article about hermit crabs and it was a take on what happens to them that I haven't heard before...hence the second paragraph. I was certainly one of those kids who saw hermit crabs as a great start for pet care. This is a really great example of the influence of marketing and communicating. Marketing has been labeled as many positives and negatives, but one thing that can't be denied is that it is a tool...however you use it.