{extremely long multi-part post follows}
The following article appears in the September/October 1993 edition of "Off
The Paw", the official newsletter of the Greater Chicago Ferret Association.
Normally, I would not use this space for such material, but it is IN RESPONSE
to an obvious flaming by another organization (FAIR - Ferret Adoption Infor-
mation & Rescue Society & Shelter,) which is operated by Ms. Mary Van Dahm,
former director of the GCFA shelter. It is hoped that others who have been
contacted by Ms. Van Dahm will at least see the other side of Ms. Van Dahm's
allegations. Please limit any replies to e-mail and I will respond in kind.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERSHIP AND FRIENDS OF THE GCFA
We, the Board of Directors of the GCFA, as representatives of the
membership, are compelled to respond to numerous derogatory remarks made pub-
licly by Ms. Mary Van Dahm regarding the GCFA and the GCFA shelter since her
resignation as Shelter Director on 4/10/93. We would have preferred to let
all parties part ways peacefully and let past differences stay in the past,
but Ms. Van Dahm has instituted a campaign of verbal and written abuse that
has caused concern among some of our club and community members.
We would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight
regarding the allegations that Ms. Van Dahm is making. The information con-
tained in this statement is supported with documentation either in Ms. Van
Dahm's own writing or in the general club and shelter records. We ask the
membership to judge for itself the issues, and invite anyone who has further
questions or comments on these matters to contact the club either in writing
or by phone. We would like to put this matter to rest once and for all. We
(meaning the board and membership) have all worked hard to make this club as
good as it is and to make the shelter the respected institution that it has
been, and we will not stand idly by and watch them be maligned by idle gossip.
Here, therefore, are statements made by Ms. Van Dahm and our facts regarding
those statements.
1. Ms. Van Dahm contends that she was fired as Shelter Director. Ms. Van Dahm
was not fired as Shelter Director, but rather chose to resign (letter of
resignation dated 4/10/93). She was having conflicts with the policies and
decisions of the Board of Directors at the time, and had been having per-
sonal differences with specific board members. Ms. Van Dahm was informed in
a letter dated 4/8/93 from the board of directors, that a special closed board
meeting had been called on 4/13/93 to allow Ms. Van Dahm to bring her con-
cerns before the board, so that all could be reasonably discussed and that
her side of the story could be considered. Due to her angry behavior at the
shelter a few days prior, we had assumed that she was resigning and also (in
the 4/8 letter) asked for a letter of resignation if that was her intention.
She chose not to attend the April 13th meeting and her letter of resignation
as Shelter Director was sent in her stead.
2. Ms. Van Dahm contends that the GCFA shelter sends many ferrets to research
institutions and that Dr. Brown conducts her own research projects on GCFA
shelter ferrets. The CGFA shelter has sent a total of 8 ferrets out of over
1400 ferrets to one institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts. Four of the ferrets were sent in 1989 because they were
adrenal disease cases and little was known about the disease at the time and
4 were sent in 1993 because they were positive lymphoma cases. All ferrets
were sent with the Shelter Director's (Ms. Van Dahm) and the Board of Direc-
tors' approval. These decisions are, of course, controversial and were dis-
cussed by ALL board members and the decision was made by the group, not by
just one member. The reasons they were sent are as follows;
I. Dr. Brown had personally visited the laboratory facilities and
found the veterinarians in charge to be considerate and concerned about the
welfare of the ferrets in their charge. The housing is similar to that of the
shelter and the ferrets are allowed play time outside of their cages and are
handled and played with daily by the staff.
II. MIT is one of the only places in the country that is doing re-
search FOR FERRETS, not on ferrets just for humans. Unfortunately, to learn
about the diseases and how to treat and prevent them, they must be able to
study ferrets with those diseases. Drs. Jim Fox and Susan Erdman, two of the
most prominent researchers working for the welfare and health of the ferret,
oversee the MIT projects. These are two people who really love ferrets and
wish to help them in any way they can.
III. The ferrets were sent with the specific requirement that they were not
to be EXPERIMENTED on and not to be euthanized unless their ill health deman-
ded it. Both sets of ferrets only had examinations and blood sampling done AT
THE MOST every two weeks. In the case of the adrenal ferrets, two had surgery
under normal anesthetic conditions to try to correct their problems. They were
not given drugs to be tested or any other toxic substances. They are being al-
lowed to live out their normal lives with their own buddies (the lymphoma ani-
mals all came together and all still live together), and contribute blood sam-
ples periodically.
IV. Most recently we considered sending out ferrets with lymphoma
because it is now felt to be a viral disease and we cannot adopt these fer-
rets out to homes with the possibility of transmission to other ferrets in the
house-hold, until more is known. Rather than just euthanize them or place them
in a home where they could do potential harm, we felt that they would be well
cared for and loved and treated kindly at MIT and that they could serve their
ferret brothers and sisters for the future with the important research that is
going on there. Those of you that have dealt with the heartbreak of lymphoma
in your household, particularly when it affected more than one ferret, will
understand our desire to do anything within reason (i.e. nothing that will
cause harm or undue discomfort to our shelter ferrets) that will aid in the
discovery of the cause of and potentially cure for this awful disease. MIT is
the ONLY institution in the United States that is attempting to determine the
cause of and potentially the cure for ferret lymphoma.Dr. Erdman kindly came
and spoke at our June meeting and explained her program. (For those of you who
did not get to see her program, we have it available on videotape).
V. Dr. Brown has never used ferrets for experimentation in her
practice and this will never be the practice as long as she is Veterinary Ad-
visor for the GCFA. She does collect data that is useful and does perform
post-mortems on all shelter ferrets that had to be euthanized or died natural-
ly, but under no circumstances are ferrets ever subjected to any form of ex-
perimentation.
We have not sent any more ferrets out to MIT since Ms. Van Dahm's resignation
(remembering again that she APPROVED all the cases). As mentioned, we only
consider special cases, (at this point lymphoma animals only) and full board
consent is required. If any of you in the membership have thoughts you would
like to share on this subject, please contact the GCFA by phone or in writing.
[Posted in FML issue 0556]
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