Questions and Internet

I think that everyone that comes into the shop must have a tale to tell about their pet. We often get the complete life story of a favourite cat, dog, bird or even fish. This can all be very interesting but a little difficult to say the least if their is a queue of customers behind the story teller waiting to pay for their purchases.
We really are a nation of animal lovers. Everyone has their own opinions and ideas about animal welfare, husbandry and just about everything else that concerns animals. This is where the Internet can be a great help, but also a great hindrance. All too often a customer will ask us for information. i.e. about looking after a new pet or what type of food to use. We will in all good faith try and help, and if we have the written documentation we will often give the enquiring customer a relevant leaflet. Then sometime later the customer will return and say that he has looked up his question on the Internet and it says ........... This may vary a great deal from what we have said, or it may just vary a bit, or it may be just the same information that we have given but is worded differently. Generally we get it about right as my staff have all been trained in animal management and welfare. But on the Internet there are hundreds of opinions and 'dos and don'ts'. Lots of sites saying different things. One site will tell you that certain types of fish or reptiles do not need heat when we know that they do. The reason that the site says 'no heat' is probably because it come from some tropical country that is hot all year round. Or different animals and birds are called by different names in different countries. I think in some larger countries animals or birds have different names depending as to which state they are in. All very confusing. I guess there are no hard and fast rules so no one can solve the problem. I just hope that common sense wins in the end.