>From:    Rebecca Katlin Coleman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: $150 -$400 ferrets, and Private breeders who lose money
 
>In other words people who CAN'T buy on for $150 to $400 at a BREEDER, can
>still get one from a shelter at a MUCH lower price.
<snip>
>Ferrets are not just for rich people.  My point in my post was someone who
>could pay $50 for a ferret, but couldn't pay $150 to $400, should still be
>able to have one.  Shelter's allow this to happen and we shouldn't therefore
>begrudge them the modest adoption fee.
 
True enough.  We charge $95.00 a ferret through our shelter, and people have
accused us of charging too much.  However, it costs us $96.30 to neuter,
vaccinate and tattoo our rescues, so really we lose money.  We maintain our
shelter by charging the same for a ferret that is already "done" when we
receive it, otherwise we'd go out of business.
 
The biggest problem we face is that some, even lots of people think shelters
exist to provide people with cheap ferrets.  This annoys me because we are
not here to provide people with less expensive pets, we are here to provide
ferrets with the opportunity to find peace and good homes.  It bothers me to
hear people say they couldn't afford the price of a kit in the pet store, so
they want to adopt instead.  We prefer to adopt to people who want to help a
needy ferret.
 
Shelters spend thousands of dollars to maintain their ferrets, and it's hard
for lots of us to feel good about adopting to someone who says they can't
afford to shell out X amount of $$ to buy from a pet store so they want to
adopt from us instead.  I know it's a matter of perception, but when I see
my account book sitting open and $500.00 worth of vet bills waiting to be
paid, I get awfully annoyed with people who say they think $95.00 is too
much to pay to adopt a ferret.  And it's difficult to assess people who
approach us with money foremost in their mind ... it's true than many of our
friends might have trouble affording the adoption fee, but would sell their
stereo to fix their ill ferret.  When it's a stranger, we don't know that
and it becomes necessary to adopt a "you get what you pay for" attitude.  If
they can't afford the adoption fee, we don't think they can afford the
ferret.
 
And I want to applaud all the shelter operators who emphasized the *time* it
takes to run a shelter.  So many people forget that it's our time being
spent to care for, clean up after and play with rescues, go to the vet, stay
up all night etc etc.  Our time is important and people forget that.  Those
who don't run shelters need to remember that just because *they* have
weekends free and want to come "inspect" the shelter (as one woman, who
wasn't even planning to adopt told me on the phone) or make a social call,
we operators rarely have any free time.  And if we do get a few minutes on
Saturday afternoon to take the dogs up the valley for a hike, maybe we don't
want to spend it with strangers asking us yet more questions about our
ferrets.
 
>In any event I still place the primary difference of shelters and breeders
>as being one assists ferrets that already exist in bad situations, and one
>actively creates new ferrets
 
Yes, this is accurate.  And the difference between a good and bad breeder is
that a good breeder is active in the local ferret community and is aware of
how many homeless ferrets are out there and might not be getting homes if
they breed.  Running a shelter puts us in a good position to see the actual
numbers, and running a ferret club puts us in touch with lots of owners so
we can adopt out rescues and sell our kits.  It's rare that we make any
profit from kits, but if we do it all goes back to the shelter.  We don't
begrudge people the desire to have a baby ferret instead of a rescue -- I
have lots of friends who have never owned a baby ferret and have always
adopted adult rescues, so when they come to my house and decide to buy that
adorable champagne kit instead of adopting the sweet sable mitt rescue, we
think that's a-okay.
 
Sheena - [log in to unmask]  | "To Err is Ferret ... To Forgive|
VP - Ferret Association     | "... Well, That's Our Job"      |
     of Greater Vancouver   (Wherret Web Pages Coming Soon!)
  We're on the Web! http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1808]