Tue 26 Apr 2011
Shoo!TAG: Crime Against Humanity
Posted by anaglyph under Gadgets, Hokum, Idiots, In The News, ShooTag, Skeptical Thinking, SmashItWithAHammer, WooWoo
[14] Comments
Dear friends. This morning I’m angry. I’m also sad and a little depressed, but mostly angry.
Yesterday ((World Malaria Day, coincidentally.)), Cow reader Battman, in a comment on the post Shoo Us the Science (Project)!, pointed me to an article on CNBC headlined:
Energetic Solutions Corporation Donates $30,000 of shoo!TAG Product to Family Legacy’s Camp LIFE in Zambia, Africa. Donation will help to prevent mosquito bites among children, staff and volunteers at Camp LIFE.
Yes, you read that correctly. Right now, in the 21st Century, some little kids risk illness and death because badly-educated ignorant people believe that stupid plastic trinkets with magnetic strips are somehow going to help protect them from contracting a life-threatening disease. ((Personally, I don’t give a rat’s ass about the staff and the volunteers at Camp LIFE themselves. Christian proselytizing also ranks high on my list of crimes against humanity. I figure that if God really wants people to be ruining the cultures and communities of poor third world countries, then the least He can do is protect his flag-wavers against mosquitoes.)) It’s bad enough that the peddlers of this ridiculous magical thinking are imposing their hocus-pocus on pets, but when it comes to the lives of kids, they have, in my book, crossed a line into criminality.
Before we go on, though, let’s get some perspective. $30,000 is an impressively generous amount if we’re talking about actual money, but what does Energetic Solutions’ donation mean in real terms? ‘People’ ShooTags are selling for something like $30 or so on Amazon at the moment. That means that $30k buys around a thousand of the things. Doing a quick search tells me that you can get blank swipe cards for about 5c apiece (probably less if you have bulk orders). Let’s be magnanimous and add another 5c per card for printing and packaging. The truth of the matter is, then, that the boastful ‘$30,000 worth of ShooTag product’ has a cost value of something like $100 to Energetic Solutions (in other words, the retail cost of 3 ShooTags). Wow, I bet they feel really good inside about that big sacrifice. ((It’s actually worse than that in fact – the tags being sent to Zambia are part ShooTag’s ‘shoocycle’ program, which entails ‘spent’ cards being ‘refurbished’ and sent off to charity. Thus, these cards probably cost them nothing at all, since they’ve already been paid for by some poor gullible sod.))
From the CNBC report:
“When we saw Family Legacy’s dedication to the children of Zambia, we knew there was an opportunity for shoo!TAG to deliver a unique level of support,” said Carter McCrary, CEO of Energetic Solutions Corporation.
In the light of what we can assume about the true value of the tags, I think we can confidently re-interpret Mr McCrary’s statement to actually mean: “…we saw this as a unique opportunity to once again hoodwink people by deceiving them. By throwing around some big numbers we’ve made ourselves appear like really swell caring-and-sharing folks.”
He goes on:
“Our hope is that shoo!TAG will assist in providing relief from mosquitos and contribute to the prevention of disease among Camp LIFE participants this summer.”
No, Mr McCrary. Your hope is that publicity stunts like this one will help make you rich. Energetic Solutions doesn’t give a flying fuck about the children of Zambia, in the same way that you don’t give a flying fuck about people’s pets.
If you did – if you were really, sincerely concerned – you’d take the time to do some proper science on your product, instead of making unsubstantiated claims supported by nothing but lies and duplicitous sleight-of-hand. Because you seem completely determined not to make proper scientific investigations of your tags, any rational person must conclude that you are afraid of what such investigations would reveal. ((Or, I guess, that you haven’t a clue what a proper scientific investigation is.)) This, in turn, demonstrates your utter indifference to the wellbeing of African children.
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A big thanks to King Willy for the suggestion for this post’s image. Photography by Queen Willy.
I’m angry too. If you believe in sin, which I assume Family Legacy does, this is truly sinful and I hope they realise who is really donating to them.
Once again Christians and criminals are never far apart. If I were really cynical about this whole thing, I would wonder who is doing the most harm:
The Shootag peddlers risking children’s lives for the sake of publicity and therefore profit?
The Christians spreading messages of false hope to desperate people, while controlling the supply of food and medicine.
OK the immediate bad guys are the Shootaggers of course, but in the long term filling people’s minds with dangerous gibberish while they are in an untenable position is a recipe for trouble and smacks of the usual evangelical hubris.
Maybe Family Legacy find out that like the Wuaorani Indians of Ecuador there is strong resistance to their meddling… Or maybe when children begin dying of Malaria the locals will get a new perspective on everything the missionaries truly represent. Either way it’s a bad outcome.
We can’t stop the Missionaries I guess, but I hope the W.H.O or the Zambian Government can stop ShooTag. As you rightly say a line has been crossed, but for me an animal’s life is as worthy as a human life, so the line has already been crossed long ago, it’s just an order of magnitude and Malaria methinks.
The King
Well, I too am saddened at the thought of animals suffering at the hands of ShooTag’s stupid inefficacy, but the truth is that people aren’t able to make scientific assessments of animal misery quite as keenly as they can of human death.
And while I agree with you as far as the concept of religious brainwashing is concerned (especially when it’s done in the name of ‘charity’), it’s an area in which I doubt I can have much effect in the short term. ShooTag, though, I think we can address fairly immediately. I have written to the WHO voicing my concerns, and, if any of you feel as strongly about this as I do, you might like to do the same by writing to someone on the WHO Health Officer Directory. I chose Pru Smith from the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.
The phrase “crock of shit” comes to mind.
Of course, that might be a good thing – didn’t native Americans in the Chesapeake Bay area smear muddy stuff on their limbs to deter mozzies?
Shoo! tags are WMD in my book.
Good post. Thanks.
You can deter mosquitoes in all manner of ways. I’m sure putting a physical barrier such as shit between your skin and the bugs would be at least slightly effective. And it has the added advantage of not getting affected by ‘cell phone frequencies’.
Of course, it might not go down well with your fellow commuters.
Well, grumbling about it on a blog is good and raises awareness… but how do we contact this Family Legacy group and let them know they’ve been duped? How do we let the press know that ShooTag are risking the health and wellbeing of kids?
Well, as I said above, I have already written to the WHO representative responsible for their malaria program. I also wrote last night to Malaria No More, a humanitarian group that works to raise awareness of malaria and help fight it in Africa.
I thought about contacting Family Legacy, but after reading their website my feeling is that it’s probably a pointless exercise. They are a Christian evangelist group and it is, in my opinion, pretty likely that their ability to discern rubbish science is minimal. I may give it a go and see what happens.
I have also made the JREF aware of this last turn of events. It’s hard to know what to do as far as the press is concerned. Usually, journalists have about as much discrimination in regard to woo-woo as Rupert Murdoch has in regard to sexism. If you have any ideas though, I’d be happy to hear ’em.
I’d like to add that I am actively involved in Australia with an ongoing investigation into ShooTag by the ACCC, the government consumer protection body. Because I’m not a US citizen, I am unable to make such complaints with any American organizations of the same kind – anyone willing to take up the matter over there, please feel free. At the most it’s a couple of emails and a phone call. All you need to do is direct them to this page which has links to the entire ShooTag story here on TCA.
It would be mighty helpful if other folks made some approaches in this matter. If I’m the only person speaking out about this I just look like a lone vigilante.
FWIW, it is a measure of the stupidity and lack of acumen of pet owners that the ACCC here has had not one single complaint about ShooTag, even though two of my local pet stores have told me about customers who wanted their money back (of course the money back guarantee doesn’t happen at the retail point – it involves a complicated process that most people can’t be bothered to undertake)
In Canada, we have an office for consumer and corporate affairs. We also have literally billions of mosquitoes. Reverend, can I send them your research on Shootags? I thought it would be best to seek your permission instead of just forwarding it to them out of hand. I will gladly do so if you will allow it.
We can be quite certain that these things can’t work since they make tick and flea tags for dogs and cats, but not humans. They make mosquito tags for humans, but not dogs and cats. WTF? I guess we shouldn’t get them started on black flies and other nasty little critters.
Everyone should feel free to direct people to Tetherd Cow’s ShooTag history, which is here.
Since the tags are now sold on the internet, they represent much more of a problem than when Energetic Solutions were just selling them out of pet shops run by their friends. Countries where mosquito-borne disease is a problem may well lose lives if anyone decides to rely on ShooTag rather than another tested preventative. The deliberate intent to sell tags for ‘people’ makes for a very dangerous situation – at least as dangerous as the use of homeopathy for defense against malaria and AIDS, a practise which the WHO has officially condemned.
Here’s a copy of the email I just sent to Health Canada:
Please refer to the following link: https://www.tetherdcow.com/?p=8304
This particular product claims to repel fleas and ticks from dogs and cats as well as repelling mosquitoes from humans. However, they have absolutely no science to back up their claim. With the recent and likely continuing scare due to West Nile Virus, my feeling is that people are going to duped into purchasing this product in the mistaken belief that they and their pets will be safe. My fear is that they will rely on these instead of proven protection such as repellant with deet. Is there any cautionary bulletin that can be issued? Is there another government department that should be advised? This is nothing but a scam.
If any other reader here wants to copy this and use it, please feel free.
I assume the company will deduct the full 30,000 from their tax liability as a charitable contribution.
This is brilliant tax planning. Invent a useless product that costs pennies to make, value it at an absurdly high price, donate a bunch of them to some poor schmucks, mark them down as a tax deductible contribution. Repeat until you no longer owe income taxes.
Yeah, good point. Hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I’ll inflate the price of my ShooWooWoo buttons and do the same!
Health Canada actually responded to my email. Here’s the response that I received:
Good day,
Thank you for contacting Health Canada.
Your enquiry has been redirected to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
Sincerely,
Health Canada | Santé Canada
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0K9
info@hc-sc.gc.ca
Telephone | Téléphone 613-957-2991 / Toll free | Sans frais 1 866-225-0709
Facsimile | Télécopieur 613-941-5366 / Teletypewriter | Téléimprimeur 1 800-267-1245
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
It’s not much, but it’s a start. Now if we can get others to start appealing to their respective governments, we might start getting somewhere.
Sadly, it smacks of the ‘that’s not my department’ attitude. But at least you know they got it, I guess. Well done.
And I agree – you readers out there who care about your pets (and kids under threat of mosquito borne disease in foreign countries), go fire off a letter right now. Ask for an inquiry into this product – if it works, then so much the better, we’ve finally cured all insect-borne maladies known to humankind. If it doesn’t, as I attest, then we’ve saved untold suffering of pets, and possibly saved some lives.