We want to make readers aware of an international Emergency Canine
Distemper Medical Fund that has been established to help any ferret
shelter that may be stricken in the future by CD. It was established
by an international group on Facebook. The fund was established by a
group following an outbreak of CD in the UK in the fall of 2011. After
an inauspicious start, the group restructured in October 2012 and was
re-named "Xavier -- a Ferret Abroad." The Ferret Association of
Connecticut now acts as the fiscal sponsor ensuring assets are
protected and accounted for and are earmarked as "restricted funds"
by FACT.

Since the restructure, the group has paid off a large vet bill from
that outbreak, has created the emergency fund, and is now ready to
start providing small grants to shelters for CD vaccination clinics.

We hope to never need to use the emergency fund. But as any shelter
like FACT knows who had CD, when you are hit with it, you need access
to cash immediately: for booster vaccinations and supportive therapy.
As we ALL know, too many of our ferret shelters operate on a shoestring
and do not have any resources immediately available to them to deal
with an outbreak or the after effects. The ferret community can help
but by the time the word gets out and funds accumulated, it is often
too late for the ferrets affected.

[Posted in FML 7809]