Dear folks, below is a pressing argument I have sent to Petfinder.com
to PLEASE consider finding a way to allow No-Kill shelters SUCH AS most
(if not all, probably) ferret shelters to be *able* to feature their
Un-adoptable animals on Petfinder's .

If you're in contact with other shelters in your area who are also on
Petfinder.com and happen to also have qualified and been accepted for
their sponsor-a-pet program, send them this (the argument below, just
cut out the part about being old,deaf and arthritic your own self,
since that only strictly applies to me :), and help me sandbag the
Petfinder's folks into realizing that it's a GOOD IDEA to feature
UNadoptables in a sponsoring program and that they would dearly Love
to be able to do so!

Susie Lee with The Ferret & Dove Sanctuary, Inc. ..................

And thank You for your kindly and clarifying reply! Take this little
no-kill shelter's argument for my idea to the staff meeting, if you
might please...No kill shelters *such as* ourselves, of which there are
every sort, for every sort of both domestic and exotic pets nearly all
have a number of birds and animals who for one reason or another are
completely dependant on the around-the-clock obervation and care of the
shelter-people and cannot conscientiously be adopted out, or considered
as such.

Consider; 1 in 4 dogs WILL contract cancer. How many of the No-Kill dog
shelter-ers will do their level best to try to make the dogs afflicted
with cancer to be comfortable for their remaining days, weeks or months
and agree with their veterinarians that there should not be a need to
"put them down" a moment before any pain or discomfort the dog shows
becomes medically unmanageable?

Answer; nearly all of them will do their best for the animals' care
and comfort at sometimes crippling expenses to themselves and their
shelters. Just because they feel it's the right thing to do for those
animals or birds.The same is true for the No-Kill Cat shelters, the
No-Kill Rabbit shelters, and very, very true for every No-Kill Ferret
shelter. The animals and birds MOST ***in Need*** of sponsors are those
who are either medically challenged or so extremely old that leaving
the familiar, friendly atmosphere of their in-home no-kill shelters
would upset those elderlies to the point of causing needless suffering
and anxiety.

I could propose that you find out for yourselves maybe by slapping
together a poll for the shelter-folks and circulating it, including
an open question on whether those shelters, especially the No-Kill
shelters, would like to be able to somehow get their un-adoptables into
the light of the sponsoring programs...Imagine the "poster"-critters
you would get and the *enormous POSITIVE* attention to the Petfinders'
site that this kind of thing would generate (Imagine doing a special
hour-long feature on Animal Planet for the "un-adoptables" who need
sponsors and then the revenue into the program that THAT attention
would generate...it would be genuinely TREMENDOUS!!!...however i
believe you might already know what their polled answers would be.
("Yes! We would desperately LOVE to feature unadoptable animals and
birds in the sponsorship program...look at these dogs with inoperable
cancer, these cats with Feline Leukemia, those ferrets with Aleutian
Disease Virus who can never be adopted out, but for whom we all need
funds for their care! The needs "out here" are truly overwhelming!
Yes! Help!!!") Anyway, by way of further consideration, give the other
shelter-folks a chance to ask, and they will joyfully PLEAD for their
un-adoptables. (personally I'm old and deaf AND arthritic, and if I
were in a human orphanage, I know that *I* would be considered Just
as "unadoptable" though still in need of care :)

 From: [log in to unmask]
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Subject: RE: Petfinder.com Weekly Report and Stats [FL571]
 Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 12:10:18 -0400

Hi, Thanks for writing. Because Petfinder.com is a site that promotes
adoption, at this time the Sponsor-A-Pet option is available only for
Adoptable pets. We do ask that only adoptable pets be listed on the
Adoptable pet list. I will forward your idea onto our staff for
consideration in future program updates.

Thanks for letting us know!

[Posted in FML 5750]