[Posted in 3 parts, combined here.  BIG]
 
Hi John.
 
You asked to hear of what people actually do or did to make a difference
with PETCO and other stores selling ferrets.  There are many ways to
help.
 
For YEARS I took my limited free time, and drove to the pet stores within
a 30 mile radius on a regular basis to kindly educate pet store employees
on the care of ferrets.  There was a high turn over, so I would have to
introduce myself all over again frequently.  I would get the feeling that
the employees at Petco cared about animals, but were often under paid and
too overworked.
 
At one small but busy pet store, the owner was a drug abuser of cocaine
and losing his money.  He had no remorse or conscience that we could see,
and was one of those people who brought in animals from puppy mills.  The
manager told me the shipment would include one of two dead puppies.  The
rest were ill, almost always with worms, and sold for an exorbitant price
in the wealthy area where his pet store was located.(This was NOT a
Petco)
 
I brought home the sick, starving, and dying ferret babies from this pet
store until they were healthy enough to hold their own.  The owner did
not like or care about the ferrets or puppies.  He was into the birds he
sold for $1500.00.  But I made a point of befriending the manager.  He
came to trust me enough to bring all these little ones back when they
were still little....but were healthy.  They came back to the same group
blatently bigger and stronger, loved silly and socialized, and were sold
within one or two days of my returning them.
 
I also bathed the ferrets, socialized them at the store itself, cleaned
up poop, changed the water bowls, trimmed their nails, and paid for their
food and a toy or two at the store with my own money.  I was there at
least every two weeks to help the ferrets for several years.  And NO..I
did not work there.
 
***See if YOU can help out like this at your nearby pet store without
asking for any money.  Earn the trust of the people there.  Compliment
them on their hard work.  Get to know the manager.***
 
I have spent hundreds of hours meeting new employees at pet stores over
the years.  I would buy something...anything, so that I would be a
"customer," ask to help trim nails, as I would be scratched bloody by the
baby ferrets whose nails had never been trimmed, and offer a few tidbits
of knowledge, and praise the people who I spoke with.
 
***Do you realize how many ferrets were kept in cedar chips? I brought in
articles for the managers. the bedding changed to Aspen. YOU can make a
difference in this way also.***
 
*****If people on the FML could just offer to trim nails at their pet
store...what a huge help.  No one is going to buy an animal that gouges
their arms.  And many employees have no idea how to scruff, or need
someone to help to trim the nails of a squirming baby.
 
If you could even offer just this help...it could mean a home for a
pretty little ferret.  Big ferrets do not sell nearly as well.  And
whatever words of wisdom you gently offered to teach employees more
about ferrets would be listened to with gratefull ears.***
 
I paid for and set up a booth at The 'Family Pet Show, and ended up
spending three days telling people why they wanted a ferret from a
shelter...if they wanted a ferret at all.  I brought along my own babies,
and info I had typed up on ferrets.  and I talked numerous people out of
getting a ferret by being honest.
 
I converted people who were going to get a ferret at a pet store and
walked over a dozen potential adopters way across the show floors through
thousands of people to another floor to where a ferret shelter was
represented.  The shelter reps that year got stuck in a corner...if was
almost impossible to find them.  I also donated a number of huge colorful
baskets bursting with all kinds of cool things for the shelter booth to
show off and sell.
 
I had someone watch my little store while I did this, but could not sell
anything while gone.  But it was more important to me to lose the money I
paid for the space if it meant even one or two good homes for a shelter
ferret.
 
***If you want to help...see if YOU can volunteer at a ferret shelter
booth at a show in your area.  Educate people.  Or make something for
them to sell at the show.***
 
Long term employees came to really trust me at the pet stores, and would
tell me if they had to put a sick ferret in the back to die.  It is how
I ended up with some of my ferrets years ago.  A number of babies came
in too small to eat kibble.  A number came in with their eyes still not
open.  I wrote to the FML at the time about it.  I gave the location and
name of the stores.
 
***If you are going to get a ferret from a store because there is no
shelter near by..take in one that does not sell month after month.  If
you do not have children, buy the biter that they cannot sell.***
 
Today it is painful to the point of screaming to lean over to pick up the
food and water bowls.  I never know when my body is going to do one of
the bizarre tricksy things it seems to like to do in these...the(cough
cough) golden years.  My years of crusading at Pet stores in a methodical
method for many hours each month is over.
 
But I STILL offer to trim nails.  I still ask to hold a ferret, and I
examine it.  The employee is there.  So I ask questions to see how the
employee is doing on his or her knowledge.  I usually hear of the
committment to animals, ***and offer my sincere praise.***
 
I still teach how to scruff, and inform employees things, such as, that
ferrets need distemper shots...a big surprise to many employees.  And I
still buy the over priced items I would normally get elsewhere as thanks
for taking up any time of the employee.
 
It is something that most of us can do when we go in to buy supplies.
 
 
This is just one story.  I know there are others, because I met a number
of people who cared at those pet stores and at ferret gatherings over the
years.  It cannot undue the damage of SO MANY ferrets at SO MANY stores
being sold to impulse buyers.
 
I believe the days of euthenizing unwanted ferrets is already upon us.
It surely is in this area at a number of places ferrets can be dumped.
I learned about that as a volunteer.
 
But here is a "good deed" John Rich.  And here too are simple but
important ways for anyone to help our tiny friends.
[Posted in FML issue 4830]