I thank Mary McCarty for responding to a message that was on the Friday
FML.  I wanted to add a few comments though that Mary didn't.
 
I am responding to the following:
>>She is also on the shelter list for the AFA.  An influencial member of
>>which has been to the shelter and has seen it first hand.  She then
>>passed on, to the ranking members of the AFA, not only the validity of
>>the shelter, but also the fact that it was the CLEANEST shelter that
>>she has ever been to, this AFA member likes to go to the shelters for
>>just this reason.
 
AFA Shelter Director Response:
>I just wanted to clarify the above statement.  AFA does not police any
>of the shelters listed on the AFA website (www.ferret.org).  We do not
>have the financial means, nor the manpower for such an undertaking.  We
>state clearly on our website that The AFA does not endorse any shelter
>and can not warrant the accuracy of the list offered.
 
There are shelters who are I am sure indeed shelters that do not want to
be listed on the AFA shelter list.  This is their choice.  Unfortunately,
we have also listed people who we were lead to believe were shelters and
weren't!  There again we can't be everywhere all the time so we have the
above statement.
 
My Shelter Committee does not share publicly any information we may
obtain on shelters while visiting them.  We are visiting them as a ferret
enthusiast, not as a volunteer of AFA.
 
All that being said, I am hoping to bring about a new program to Certify
Shelters for the AFA.  This might give a little added confidence to
people wanting to find true shelters.
 
Faith Hood
American Ferret Association
Shelter Committee Director
[Posted in FML issue 5007]