After:
 
1. It's important to maintain legal parameters when doing such a rescue.
 
2. Network: This is when all of your work networking may be most
beneficial so that labor, supplies, and the ferrets themselves can be
taken care of by many people.
 
3. Be careful to get vet checks and to not move animals until you know
those individuals are safe enough to move to other locations without
posing an infection risk
 
4. Upon receipt of the ferrets any shelters involved should note their
conditions and should keep continuing records in case something unnoticed
crops up later.  These records need to be shared with the authorities who
are pursuing legal action against the abuser.
 
5. Have everyone involved sign the documentation.
 
6. If what you encountered was a hoarding situation there is
excellent information to be found in the following resources about
how to deal constructively with hoarding.
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding.html
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/MunicipaLawyer.pdf
http://www.legis.state.il.us/publicacts/pubact92/acts/92-0454.html
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p000425.html
 
7. Lack of discipline and overdose of emotionalism can jeopardize the
logical extreme of the effort - to shut down forever the
breeding/hoarding/neglect of the animals.
 
8. It's important to thank the 'official' people involved as well as
your volunteers.  Their's is a difficult job and something as simple as
saying 'thank you' can really make a difference.  There are already too
many people in this world who don't take the time to say thanks.  In
situations such as this, their help is crucial...let them know how much
it is appreciated.  You may find yourselves working together again.
 
Further resources that may aid you before, during, and after the rescue:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/awa.htm
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/publications.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lobby_statelawcards
 
Many thanks to the people who provided this information and worked on
this compilation to help us all:
 
Barbara Clay, Judy Cooke, Steve Crandall, Sukie Crandall, Danee
DeVore, Renee Downs, Alicia Drakiotes, Troy Lynn Eckart, Julie Fossa,
Bill Gruber, Linda Iroff, and Betty Janner
----
 
Okay.  We have two additions for the Guidelines (which went into each
section).  These come from Barbara Clay:
 
>It's important to maintain legal parameters when doing such a rescue.
 
and
 
>Lack of discipline and overdose of emotionalism can jeopardize
>the logical extreme of the effort - to shut down forever the
>breeding/hoarding/neglect of the animals.
----
 
I just saw Katherine's post today.  So that no one assumes the worst
of her I think that I should point out that she is NOT the person who
sent the nasty note full of four letter words about the guidelines.
[Posted in FML issue 4222]