William writes
>IMO the majority of pet owners are good hearted responsible people
 
To which Kim F replies
>If indeed the majority of animal companions were good hearted as well as
>responsible then the problem of abuse, neglect and abandonment would be
>virtually non existent.
 
This is simply bad math.  Majority means greater than half.  But it
doesn't take very many bad owners to cause major problems.
 
The number of ferrets in this country is probably somewhere in the single
digit millions.  If just 1 percent of owners were bad, this would result
in tens of thousands of abused, neglected and abandoned ferrets.  If it's
10%, that would mean 100s of thousands.  (For sake of simplicity, this
assumes bad owners have as many pets as good owners.)
 
It doesn't take very many bad priests to make pedophilia a problem in the
Catholic church.  It doens't take very many bad cops to make a corrupt
police force.  It doesn't take many bad policians... well I won't use
that one! :-)
 
The point is, the MAJORITY of pet owners ARE responsible, caring people.
 
But there are enough that aren't.
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3862]