I'm just coming in on the middle of this topic - but had a little input.
 
I understand your taking offense because of the situation that you
say you have in your home - where smoking is done well away from the
ferrets - but at the same time understand that as a shelter that adopts
ferrets, you have a policy or you don't - it's hard to have a policy
that allows for a great deal of subjectivity as you get accused of
descrimination.
 
Whether it's an issue of ferrets exposed to 2nd hand smoke or adopting
to families with very young children - it's a hard call and all I can
say is that in the end, in each situation, the shelter operator simply
has to do what they believe is in the best interest of the ferret.
[Posted in FML issue 5027]