Hello all

I AM truly stunned here. Apparently, a number of people think keeping
ferrets in New York in someone else's garage (Garages are not
ventilated) and being excited to have found a place to live that does
not allow ferrets is just fine. I am still trying to fathom this
reality.

While I wrote that perhaps the garage was heated and air conditioned,
but that this was not probable, most people that wrote me did not think
a plain old unheated or un-air conditioned (and unventilated) garage
was a bad place to keep ferrets!

Two people wrote who also found the writing of the lady from New York
at odds with their beliefs. But over a dozen people thought keeping an
animal in a non-ventilated garage in an area where extremes of hot and
cold occur is nothing to be concerned about.

When I was a child we had cats. My dad would not allow them in the
house. The first two died in the garage. One roasted to death in the
summer. The other, it was believed, died from fumes from the chemicals
commonly placed in a garage. The gas that is used on the lawn mower is
what the vet thought killed the cat. This would naturally be kept in
the garage. They were alone in the same kind of extremes of weather as
are in New York. Out of sight, out of mind. They each lived about 6
months.

Since they were not in the house, they became "crazy" if you will.
Poor, poor things. They became un-socialized. I was actually afraid
of them. We had others, but they were hit by cars. No way dad could
get them to stay in the garage. They were just innocent baby kittens
isolated from the family and other companions.

My parents just did not seem to know any better back when I was a
child. They grew up on farms. Maybe they thought a garage was the
same as a barn. My grandma had a number of barn cats on the farm in
Wisconsin.

There was a rescue of 2 little girl ferrets kept in the garage. It was
last winter, I believe. Parents left their child with a neighbor. After
a few days, the child mentioned that maybe she should feed the cat in
the house. At least it could drink water out of the toilet bowl, and
the heat was set to low..So it was not dead yet.

While at her house to do that, she suddenly remembered that she had a
few other pets. It was just a last minute flicker of...oh yes. There is
something in the garage. They were hard to reach behind a pile of stuff
stacked up. Out of sight, out of mind.

They were starved and near frozen, and oh so close to death. I believe
they both weighed under a pound. My friend had a rough go of it. But
she managed to save them. Another day, and it would have been too late.

I would like to apologize to all of the people on the FML who think it
is fine for a ferret owner in New York to hope to keep ferrets in some
one else's garage , and who did not think it at all upsetting that the
person was happy that she might have found a non-pet place to live
after writing that she loved her ferrets.. I did not realize we had
any people here that were of this particular mind set.

Know your audience, I was taught in a writing class. I did not know the
majority of the people who wrote to me. No one was rude. And I thank
you. You just don't think something that I strongly believe to be
animal abuse is wrong.

This has been a BIG eye opener to me. As I wrote, I am really
struggling with some emotional issues in my family and the worries of
the economy. So, maybe last year I would not find locking ferrets in
an unventilated area in someone elses garage in a cage in New York to
be physically and emotionally cruel?

No. No. I would still think that it a terrible thing to do. I do not
want to argue with anyone. Actually, this has left me feeling sickened
inside. I don't know how to convince people that a garage is not a
barn, or that isolating an animal in a garage for all its life is
animal cruelty physically and emotionally. I don't know how to do that.

Best wishes to all,
Lisette

[Posted in FML 6244]