It's been a pet shop kinda week for us down here.  About a week or so ago,
Barbara Ludt, our NE branch shelter operator, took six babies out of a bad
pet shop situation in the Jacksonville area.  I'll be heading up to
Melbourne, FL this weekend to pick up two of the babies.  One for us (our
first girl ever!) and one for someone else.
 
Today I got e-mail from a ferret lover in West Palm Beach that visited a pet
shop who had seven, five to six-month old ferrets that they kept in the
backroom because they were biters.  I later found out that out of 10 ferrets
that he sold, 5 came back almost instantly due to behavioral problems.  We
don't know if this was a perceived problem by people new to ferret
caretaking or a fact.  There was some indication that the ferrets were not
going to have a happy, or even a long, life in the current situation.
 
I contacted Barbara and Angela (our shelter operator here in Miami) right
away and they agreed that we should remove the ferrets if the pet shop owner
was willing to give them up.
 
Surprisingly enough, he not only agreed to turn them over to our shelter,
but offered to drive them down to our shelter tomorrow.  That's a 60 or 70
mile drive from West Palm to Miami.  So it seems like he's not such a bad
guy after all... or he's just real eager to get them out of there.
 
So it looks like we'll have 7 youngsters looking for a home real soon.
They'll need some work and will have to go to experienced ferret owners.  We
won't ship ferrets, so you'll have to come to the shelter or adoption
center.  We'll know more about their condition and behavior once we see them
tomorrow.
 
The petshop owner said he got them from a breeder in Athens, PA.  Does
anyone know if that's where Path Valley is located in PA?
 
For the ferrets,
Mike
 
* Michael F. Janke, [log in to unmask]
* Secretary, South Florida Ferret Club & Rescue
*
* Visit our web site:  http://www.gate.net/~mjanke
[Posted in FML issue 2229]