In response to Paula's post about the good experience she had with a PETCO
in her area when she was unable to adopt from a local shelter because of
her young son, I have tried to get PETCO to work with area shelters as
Petsmart does.  I offered to provide them with a list of shelters in the
U.S. and Canada.  I asked them to at least consider to stop selling
ferrets in areas where shelters are overwhelmed.  I also received an email
from a lady who mentioned horrible experiences she is having with the PETCO
in her area.  I'm attempting to get her to come forward and do something
about this situation.  She is caring for the ferrets in the store.  They
are too young to chew kibble and two have died.  One fell in the Midwest
cage and was killed.  Another was returned by a customer who had no idea
why the ferret had died.  These ferrets had nothing to cuddle in.  They
were huddled in a food bowl shivering.  This lady provided bedding and
clear plexy panels to shield the ferrets from the cold coming in from the
doors.  The manager of this PETCO owns ferrets and allows these horrible
conditions?  It should not be a customer's responsibility to care for
ferrets in a store.  I'm sure there are PETCOs with nice employees who
truly care for the animals, but I'm hearing of far too many terrible
situations that have to be corrected, and these have to be brought to the
upper management's attention.  I also understand your being upset because
the shelter would not adopt to you, and I realize that every situation is
different.  At the Ferret Association of CT, we provide a very detailed
application and everyone submits to an indepth interview.  I don't know if
you tried our shelter, but we have experienced people running it who know
how to assess each situation.  Also, consider that ferrets have not been
legal in Massachusetts very long, so maybe these shelters don't have the
experience with dealing with the public and being able to ascertain
correctly if it is a good adoptable home, and I don't mean any slights to
any shelters in MA, just that you learn from experience.  We have surely
made errors in judgment.  I'm waiting to hear from Mr. Woodard of PETCO.  I
sent him samples of FML posts with the author's names deleted to give him
an idea of what is occuring in various PETCOs.  I did include a positive
post, but the bad ones far outnumbered the good ones.
 
Moxie
Ferret Association of CT, Inc.
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2618]