Wow!  GREAT TOPIC, Ardith!  I'd like a refresher on how SOS began and the
storms the ladies weathered all while doing so much good work, too!
 
Re: SOS: Judith, Ela, and Georgia have been the core.
Talk about folks who kept going through hard times!  I recall some things
tried that didn't pan out, tons of work by all of them, even them facing
false and horrid rumor mongering which could have hurt SOS and as a
result would have hurt shelters.  They weathered it all and have done so,
very, very, very much!  These are ladies I greatly respect and admire!
 
http://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9606&L=ferret-
search&P=R34075&D=0
 
Judith White wrote in part:
>Emergency Fund to Support Our Shelters...
>At long last, our small group of FML folks is ready to propose a fund
>raising program to support the shelters on the FML.  This group includes
>Ela Heyn, Judi Lunn, Georgia Wood, Cheryl Forbis, and Karen Trask.  BIG
>has also seen everything... Ideally, the program must be able to continue
>without me should I disappear from the FML...
>
>Karen Carby (owned by Sneaker) has contacted me to try help with this
 
I don't know if this is the very earliest public mention and think that
it may not be.
 
On another topic look what I found:
http://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9505&L=ferret-
search&P=R4272
 
Pam's effort then also shows how long it can take to make many desired
changes.  If I recall right at about this same time that Julianna first
began working for more USDA enforcement for ferrets which has recently
also begun happening.  I guess it's not surprise that many worthwhile
things take so long and depend on steady work, increasing information,
contacts, smart behavior and luck.  The steps to move from ferrets not
even having a rabies vaccine to them being including with dogs and cats
in the protections of the "Compendium of Animal Rabies Control and
Prevention" was over ten years of hard work by many people (with Dr.
Judi Bell being the one who spearheaded the move to protect ferrets this
way back when she was head vet for Marshall Farms which also worked hard
even after she was gone to get this progress which has saved so many
ferrrets); even after the Compendium changes there was work to do and
now, 6 years after the Compendium was first improved there remain some
physicians and emergency rooms still not knowing:
 
1. That there has been USDA approval for an effective rabies vaccine for
   ferrets since 1990
2. That there is no record world-wide of anyone ever contracting
   rabies from a ferret
3. That the way rabies behaves in them is very well understood due to
   multiple studies in the U.S.  through the CDC, and in France and
   Germany who preceded the U.S.  in those types of studies except for
   the one which showed that they can't contract it by eating infected
   tissue.
4. That there are state experts who are Public Health Veterinarians
   (both vets and epidemiologists) who specialize in this and have the
   information they need as well as other very basic things ANY physician
   and ESPECIALLY any emergency room physician should know.
 
Anyway, good things do tend to take time, focus, contacts, and luck.  The
SOS is one of the VERY GOOD things and the ladies who made it happen and
who make it happen have shown that over and over again by giving us all
excellent examples of what hard work can achieve.
 
I'd forgotten that Pam Greene was involved with the project but found
her in a later post.  Boy, it is good to have a memory refresher now and
then!
 
BTW, for anyone who hasn't been there:
http://www.supportourshelters.org .
[Posted in FML issue 4397]