Anyone who missed Sukie's post last night on verifying a shelter/rescue
operation should find it and print it out..  it was excellent!!!
 
I would like to add a couple things, if I may..
 
Most rescue/shelter/sanctuary centers are required to have local and
sometimes state liciences in order to operate at all.  Even private centers
that do this sort of work must be sanctioned by a local agency.  This means
permits and periodic inspections by animal control and the health department
and sometimes others.  In order to keep the permit to operate they must meet
specific guidelines and requirements for cleanliness and no overcrowding and
food and water and lots of other things.  For that local, to you, shelter
she mentions as being the best to support [she's absolutely right about this
too] please call the Animal Shelter or Animal Control station and ask what
their inspections indicate and their opinion of the quality of the shelter
and its condition and staff.  Call the health department and ask if they
have any record of complaints and the results of their inspections and their
rating of the shelter.  Make sure the shelters permits are up to date.  And
when you visit ask to see their intake/placement records and see if they
keep neat and complete records with vaccines, and all other vet/med work
noted and charted..and if they show follow up calls and visits to check on
the suitability of the placements they effect.  Ask for a copy of their
financial statement and yearly financial report..  in short..  establish for
yourself that this is a place where the care and health of the ferrets is of
primary import..  and that they have good reports by local agencies and that
they have no black marks against them for failed inspections or complaints
from the public..  and that they are responsible about their placements and
follow up each one..  and that they are good financial managers who don't
stagger from crisis to crisis barely managing to get thru each day, but
instead plan and keep reserves and demonstrate responsible and mature
judgement.
 
As she said, watch out for the place that does nothing but send out
desperate pleas for urgent or emergency help..  instead look for a shelter
thats steady and sends out instead the stories of patients and residents
AFTER the crisis is passed and everything is moving forward that share good
calm news and don't 'push your impulse button' for quick financial saves.
 
 Check with the shelter vet and ask for his/her opinion of the staff and the
care given the fuzzys at the facility... a recommendation for or against your
giving financial aide.
 
And finally..  check to see if the shelter is going out into the community,
offering information packets to stores for ferret customers, perhaps hosting
a ferret club meeting a night or two a month..  doing little talks in
schools and senior citizens places..  hosting a 'ferret day' table at local
pet shops a few times a year and giving out information as well as answering
questions and giving advice where asked..  holding public pot lucks or some
such to help raise funds, offering shelter 'ferret shop' items , the small
profit from which will help funding as well..  in short interacts with the
community to be of service, to educate, to get the shelter known to pet
industry folks, and to regularly fund raise thru offerings so the need for
appeals and emergency funding is a very rare event.
 
A shelter must be just that, a place of refuge... and a dirty, unsanctioned,
poorly administrated, overcrowded, place with no community service and
interaction is a refuge for nobody, especially not a homeless, scared,
possibly hurt or sick or starved little fur person.  If a shelter isn't up
to snuff, either support one that is or help get your choice upgraded..
 
The news is full of reports of horrible disgusting personal 'animal
shelters' someone has cobbled together in their yard [big or small] to save
the poor little doggies or kitties or whatever.  No vaccinations, rotten
food, waste everywhere, no reliable water supply, overcrowded, infested with
parasites etc.  that get busted wide open in a raid and the poor fur kids
are mainly so ill and neglected they end up PTS.  Be sure 'your' shelter is
top quality and a place to be proud of.  Insist on it!!!
 
California, So Cal especially has to be the scam capitol of the world..  and
those rotten people that prey on their fellow man have hurt so many people
out here that the good folks with real and worthwhile efforts to fund find
it hard going to get anyone to hear them.  Even the police have been used as
subjects by scam artists who call claiming to be an officer/or arrive at
your door in uniform, to ask for donations to the police departments
favorite charities.  The saying here is 'if its legit its got a permit' and
I always check to see that any group soliciting any amount, no matter how
small, has a registered legal permit to operate.
 
 food for thought...
 
 dayna
 
 dayna frazier   102046,3162
'resident of the 'Marvellous Menagerie of Mirthful Mayhem'
             MMOMM!!!
[Posted in FML issue 1613]