(Lisette, this is not a flame against you.  Please don't take it as
one.  Your idea was made with the best intentions, but I am wary of this
becoming a movement.  Yesterday's post from Georgia felt like a
"call-to-arms" and a challenge we should all rise to.  It got a rise
out of me, all right.)
 
I feel bad for the Sheffermans on a personal level...but I don't think
it's appropriate for ferret lovers to send them additional donations to
pay off bills related to their business.  We have only the rumor that a
printer's bill or other bill even exists.  They have not asked for
donations; as a business I don't think they CAN accept donations, not
ethically anyway.  They are not a charity; they are a for-profit business.
How do you know what your check is actually paying for??
 
My husband works for a company that makes recognition awards for companies
to give to employees.  After 9/11, his company lost many contracts with
industries that got hit.  His hours were cut in half, and we are WAY
behind on our rent and car payments.  Many others are struggling with
these after-effects as well.  Are FMLers going to send out checks to all
of us??
 
I don't to feel as though I have a responsibility to help Modern Ferret
cover its bills just because I am a ferret lover and they are (or used to
be) in the business of producing a ferret magazine.  I'm sure there are
others also scratching their heads wondering why we as ferret lovers would
be obligated to carry the Sheffermans financially through a personal
crisis.  What if we all send them checks and they STILL produce nothing
because something else comes up??  Then what?  Send them even more??
 
People have already sent a subscription fee that was hard for some to
scrape up, but they wanted a magazine and chose to support Modern Ferret.
Frankly, it is offensive to suggest that they now ought to consider
sending a "donation" on top of the money they've already sent.  My
understanding was that the delay had more to do with Eric's illness and
several other problems (deaths in the family) than with finances.  At
least that's what on Mary's "blog".
 
Ferret shelters struggle with debts every day - some of them have run up
vet bills in the thousands.  Every day (not just 9/11) brings a new crisis
to a ferret shelter...a drop-off that critically needs a $500 surgery, a
collector raid that drops off 25+ ferrets in one day, or the shelter
director has a personal medical issue they can't pay for because they've
spent all their funds on surgeries, food, and Pred.  Yet despite the
setbacks and hardships, they keep going.  They take in ferrets even as
their own health fails.  They do not stop even under the most dire of
circumstances as the debts pile up.
 
There are still outstanding bills from the Utah rescue, and shelters
struggling with the awesome task of caring for those kids.  Send THEM
donations.  Despite enormous obstacles, personal expense, and the
heartbreak of losing ferret after ferret, shelters are STILL hard at
work.  They do not shut down even when they desperately want to.  Shelter
directors have lost close family members, and never stopped caring for
ferrets.  Two people who started a magazine and couldn't keep up with
their bills are not, IMO, a charity, nor should ferret lovers be made to
feel that they must start sending donations to pay off their supposed
bills.  (I say "supposed" because, again, who has any actual proof that
there is an outstanding printer bill or any other bill??)
 
I know full well that I will get flamed for this.  I don't even care.
This has me angry, this implication that I'm supposed to help the
penniless Sheffermans just because I am a ferret lover.  I give to
shelters because I DO feel that it's my responsibility to help them.
When you send a check to a shelter, you know it's going to help ferrets.
 
Donate to the shelters who keep going in spite of ALL the obstacles in
their way!  Don't "donate" to a for-profit business that has not kept its
promise to its customers, has not communicated with the people who have
sent them money, and has cashed people's checks and charged their credit
cards KNOWING that they had no product to deliver (called fraud).  Not to
mention all their advertisers, who have paid fees to have no ads come out.
They've already taken quite a few people's money without doing anything in
return.  Mine will go to a non-profit cause that is deserving of charity
contributions - a ferret shelter.
 
-Heather W.
 Writing a $35 check to a ferret shelter in Massachusetts
[Posted in FML issue 3740]