I just wanted to share with the ferret community a hard lesson that we
learned and to reiterate that you should ALWAYS get a contract signed
when placing a ferret no matter who you are placing it with.  A few years
ago we became friends with a woman who would come over once or twice a
year to take care of our ferrets if we went away for a few days.  She was
a volunteer for a local ferret club in our area.  We rarely go anywhere,
as we hate to leave our ferrets.  We had learned to trust this person, as
she took good care of them.  We occasionally breed one or two litters,
and only if we know we already have good homes for the kits.  This woman
asked if instead of paying her for her services, if she could have a baby
from our next litter.  We agreed that would be fine.  This person knew
going into this, what our views on ADV and certain shows were, and that
we do not place our ferrets with people who may put them at risk.  As
they are our ferrets, that is our prerogative.  Everyone is entitled to
his or her own beliefs and if they are different than ours, there are
plenty of ferret breeders where you can get a ferret.
 
She took her new boy home August 2003 and since she was a "friend" we
did not go through the formalities of a written contract but had a verbal
agreement to have him altered by November, December that year.  She said
no problem, as she had no intention of breeding, she just wanted a nice
big boy to show.  That was our mistake.
 
This past week some information came to us.  She admitted to already
having bred a litter prior to her even getting the boy from us.  Then
she admitted to having two litters this year.  This past June I asked
her if our boy was neutered yet, and she said no, she did not have the
money, but said she would have him done ASAP.  This week I found out he
is still not neutered, I told her to take him to our vet and we would
pay for it.  She refused.  I reminded her that we had an agreement he was
to be altered.  She said that the ferret is hers and she can do with him
whatever she wants, and take him wherever she wants.  The situation has
become nasty.  In an email that she sent me, other things have come to
light.  Her TRUE views on ADV testing, her telling me she LOVES shows,
goes to all of them, all of the SHOW ferrets are up to date, yet claims
that she does not have the money to neuter the ferret and the email
suggests that her others are not up to date due to lack of funds.  She
has also stated that she will NEVER pay the asking price for a breeder
ferret, and that she knew what our views were but knew that we would not
have given her the ferret if we knew that she was breeding and going to
be taking him to shows that do not test for ADV so she withheld that
information in order to get the ferret.  She says she has done nothing
wrong.  She didn't lie, she just did not tell us.  I have tried to reason
with her, to no avail.  Our hearts are broken right now.  We were lied to
and deceived by someone we considered a friend.  It has been a hard
lesson learned.  If anyone planning on placing ferrets would like more
information or the name of this person they can email us directly.  We do
not want this to become an issue of discussion on the list.  We just want
to make sure that no one else goes through what we are going through.
 
Denise Orlowski
Furry O's Ferrets
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[Posted in FML issue 4726]