To insinuate that one organization's show is safer than another because
they have a vet check is just wrong. Having a vet check is no guarantee
that someone will not get in with parasites or be carrying a disease is
that is not yet evident.

If you want to go back to the early '90's I have two cases in point
that are not hearsay and not from the archives of the FML, they were
personal experiences. LOS show, in a church hall in Croyden. Very small
hall, very cramped quarters. Round tables like you would see at a
wedding reception and it was first come first serve for exhibitors. Our
head tech and I both were showing. Halfway through the show we went out
into the parking lot to get something from the car and there was the
woman from the table next to ours spraying her ferret with flea spray.
Apparently that was missed at the vet check. A judge had found fleas
on the ferret while judging and she went out and sprayed it and was
allowed back into the show hall. Depending on the flea product most
take at least 24-48 hrs to start killing fleas.

I also attended a SVFC vetted show and bought two kits from a breeder
who had them in her hotel room. She had many kits and several ferrets
that she was showing. Took the kits to my office the next day to wash
them and give them shots. One kit had two fleas vet check missed it, I
missed it until I wet her. You can't tell me she was the only one in
that pile of ferrets. So the moral of the story is having a vet check
at a show is no guarantee that you are safer.


No one is infallible and things can and do get by. To try to give
people the impression that you have less of a chance of anything
happening at shows other than AFA because they are vetted is wrong.
When you are going through that many animals that quickly if the animal
has only a few fleas, or is carrying a disease not yet evident it is
very easy to miss vet or not.

[Posted in FML 6394]