First of all, I respectfully and heartily disagree with Kim concerning
her recent diatribe against Sandra. The situation in which Sandra found
herself was, I'm sure, *not* a common one. Why would you, Kim, lay the
blame entirely on her? I'm sorry, but I firmly believe that it is the
responsibility of the *parents* to curb their children, whether they
are "special needs" types or not. There are too many parents in this
world that apparently think that their children can do no wrong, and
therefore do not properly discipline said kids. Was this the case in
this situation? I don't know. I wasn't there.

I think I can say, though, that without having been there yourself,
perhaps you shouldn't so harshly judge Sandra. You said some extremely
rude and cruel things to her, including questioning whether or not
she is fit to be a shelter mom. If we were discussing such incidents
happening at her shelter on a regular basis, or even more than once,
then sure -- I'd agree. But I think it is inappropriate for you to
attack her and question her ability. I think that the fact that she
didn't haul off and smack/scream at/shoot/strangle either child (or the
parents) speaks well for her. It tells me that she has more patience
than I do. Certainly the fact that there were, it appears, THREE
casualties (unless I misunderstood something)-- the two babies that had
to be put to sleep after this incident, as well as the one that broke
its leg -- tells me that *I* would have gone absolutely thermonuclear.
Some people are that way about their skin kids; I am that protective of
my furkids.

I understand that it is extremely difficult to find volunteers. The
fact that Sandra never had experienced problems with these kids in the
past says that it was probably an isolated incident. I doubt that they
are bad kids, or what I would call brats; I think that they probably
need, at this point, to be sat down and have the terrible consequences
of their actions explained, as well as a good explanation of how to
treat animals -- in this case, ferrets especially. As we all know,
ferrets are delicate critters, and they require some special handling.
I don't think that I personally could allow them back into my shelter,
though.

Hopefully, we all can learn from this dreadful situation, and act
accordingly in the future.
-- 
/\_/\
(>"<)
(")_(").:*¬¬*:.ERI.:*¬¬*:.

[Posted in FML 6580]