My original post was only intended to provide a counter point to a poster
who stated they knew of no shelter that bred ferrets in an area with high
ferret shelter numbers.  It was NOT intended to be a general argument
against shelter operators breeding ferrets or breeders sheltering ferrets.
 
I have no problems with shelter operators who breed ferrets where
 
  + each ferret in the shelter gets out for play time and attention every
    day,
  + every litter pan is scooped every day and all food bowls and water
    bottles are checked each day and filled as needed,
  + breeders, kits and retired breeders are not lumped in with shelter
    ferrets,
  + kits are not adopted out as shelter ferrets, even if they are returned
    to the breeder,
  + kits are not given priority when showing ferrets to people visiting the
    shelter,
  + shelter ferrets are never used as part of the breeding program.
 
NONE of the above were true for the shelter operator I was talking about.
There are a number of well respected FML and alt.pet.ferrets posters who
visited the shelter and can confirm many, if not all of these conditions.
 
zen said:
>There is not a conflict between shelters and breeding.
 
I agree.
 
>Being very familiar with both sides in the incident Leonard mentioned,
>no. There was a disagreement on how one particular shelter handled or
>did not handle the separation of functions.
 
You are familiar with the incident that became the "final straw that broke
the camel's back", but it was not just this separation of activities that
caused a falling out.  My above list of issues were more important factors,
as well as other legal issues.
 
Leonard Bottleman
[Posted in FML issue 3216]