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Originally Posted by red98vett I disagree. Tarawood posted a good thread on this but I don't know where it is - regarding my post - There are many posts about bad breeders - why would this be singled out ?
There's been countless posts about good and bad breeders and someone here nailed it on the head - if you don't want bad publicity - then don't give anyone a reason to be upset.
we are SHARING INFORMATION and discussing it on a public forum - you are making it sound like no one can say anything without JMO in front of it - I don't think that is going to really make a difference - but that's JMO.... |
People get upset for all sorts of reasons whether they are reasonable or not. There are breeders on here who will tell you that people get upset when a puppy ends up being bigger than 5 lbs even when the breeder told them there was no way to guarantee adult size. They will get upset if the breeder raises her prices or refuses to ship a puppy or won't sell to them because they do not find their home life suitable for whatever reason. It would be great to think we can be safe from people who choose to speak in a negative way about someone or their business just by " not giving people a reason to be upset" but that is not reality, unfortunately.
I remember Tarawood's post (Thread "Who's Responsible?" 3/30/05) and I discussed it with her privately because she was not completely correct. In the case of slander, which is the oral or spoken form of defamation,
damages must be proven, but in the case of libel, which is the writen form of defamation,
no damages need be proven. They are "assumed" because the written word is so much more powerful than the spoken word and can do so much more widespread damage.
I am not telling anyone on here what to say and what not to say, I am simply advising that it is safer to use "in my opinion" if you really want to protect yourself
when you are speaking negatively about anyone or any thing.
We should feel free to have healthy, respectful debate and discourse with differing viewpoints on issues on this forum free from fear of making defamatory comments that might unintentionally hurt someone or their business. It is easy if you just do it right. It's not difficult.
I don't believe that we have to adhere to the addage, "if you don't have sonething nice to say, don't say anything at all" but I would just say that if you have something that's not nice to say, then state that it is your experience, or it is your opinion, and it be less likely to cause a problem.