I went to their site after seeing them interviewed on Animal Planet and read their "terms of use" and their "photo contest rules" They put on a photo contest each month where you get to win $100.00 for the photo of the month and that automatically enters you into the $5,000.00 contest.
No where in their photo contest rules or their terms of use police does it state that "they do not support photos of exotic pets". My Sugar Glider named Sutton was entered into their photo of the month contest for the month of February and he won the contest for February.
After a couple of days gone by without hearing from anyone from AnimalAttraction I decided to write them a short note and ask them if I am supposed to contact them of if they contact me once I have discovered that I won the contest.
They asked me what type of animal is Sugar Glider? I replied to them finally with the answer they were looking for. They replied back to me as quoted below.
"From: [email protected]
To: (removed to protect my privacy)
Subject: RE: Site Request: Other
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 10:07: 40 -0500
Hello,
Thank you for the information. We apologize to have to inform you that we can not accept your photo as the contest winner. We are a site for companion animal lovers and do not support the ownership of exotic animals as pets. We take our guidelines from The Humane Society of The United States, with whom we partner to display pet care tips and information that is helpful to pet owners.
We apologize that we did not pick up on this as soon as the photo was entered. It was obviously an error on our part to allow the photo to be included in the contest.
Thank you for understanding and we again apologize that we did not notify you immediately that we do not accept photos of exotic animals in the contest or in our member profiles.
Thank you."
Ok, now the one of the definitions for discrimination is as follows copied and pasted from Discrimination: "Unlawful discrimination can be characterized as direct or indirect. Direct discrimination involves treating someone less favorably because of their possession of a legally protected attribute (e.G., sex, age, race, religion, national origin, military status, disability, etc.)"
I think Sugar Gliders are legally protected which is why a USDA license is required to sell them. AnimalAttraction has this magic clause that states "AnimalAttraction has the sole and exclusive right to disqualify any contests at any time." That last quote was copied and pasted from an email they sent to me.
No where on any place of their site does it state that Exotic Animals are not welcome. They waited until I won the photo contest to tell me that they "do not support the ownership of exotic animals as pets"
I hear that they have also discriminated against Ferret owners too.
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