My Christmas wish is for Petco to stop selling ferrets nationwide. They
don't sell puppies or kittens, they advocate adoption for those pets.
But the sale of ferrets from Petco has resulted in our ferret-specific
shelters to be overwhelmed, especially now when lots of babies will be
purchased by uninformed people for Christmas presents for kids, only
to end up in a shelter six months from now.

We have almost 3000 ferrets in recognized shelters this year on the
Giving Tree. And that's not including those in Humane Society
facilities and county run shelters.

We need to let Petco know that most of those ferrets in shelters
originate from them. Shelter owners should tell them what percent
of surrenders came from Petco, who purchase their ferrets from mass
breeding operations like Marshal Farms.

A precedent was set by 11 Petco stores in Oregon in March 2012 . Those
stores agreed to stop selling ferrets and to refer those people wanting
a ferret to the nearest ferret shelter. See
<http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2012/03/ferrets_are_flooding_area_shel.html>

If all of us could take just 5 minutes and call Petco at 888-824-7257
to lodge a complaint about the sale of ferrets we could make a
difference. You will get a live person at that number. Leave your name
and email, then you will get a form response and inquiry #. But your
request will get passed on to headquarters in San Diego, CA. If enough
of us do it and keep doing it we can radically reduce the number of
ferrets in shelters. It can work - we can do it.

In memory of the ones we've loved and lost.

Lorraine Lordi

[Posted in FML 7987]