>From:    Catherine Shaffer <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Veterinary Medicine
>Isn't Judith Bell the Marshall Farms doc?  Or former Marshall Farms doc?
 
She was until the hassles from misguided animal rightists, prodded by
unfortunately ferret organizations, grew to be too much to take.
 
>From:    Catherine Shaffer <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Money and Shelters
 
This isn't really abnormal.  You won't get a puppy from any government
sponsored shelter without paying.  Ever adopted a human child?  They charge
quite a bit of money.
 
>I'm not trying to pick on you shelter operators who are doing a wonderful
>service at all, but what proportion of rescues are actually "purchases?"
 
If you mean a commodity that was purchased and resold, none of ours.  Can't
vouch for other shelters, but most I know don't do that either.
 
I'll reveal a little of our financials to let folks understand this better.
We lost quite a bit over $10,000 in 1995 on our ferrets including the
shelter.  The shelter portion was not seperated out as we use the same food
and all other supplies everywhere.  This was also only the portion we
bothered to keep track of, some we didn't bother to add in.  We do not
accept donations.  We did not return a donation of about $1 that was
included in with money sent as an approximation of the price to dub a video
tape and mail it out, and still feel guilty about that.  We will not beg
on-line or in person.  Asking a small adoption fee in return for a ferret
will not pay for the shelter but it will offset some of the costs.  This is
one of those cases where if you don't like the shelter's policies than don't
ask for one of their ferrets.  You can tell which shelters might need to
rethink their policies by their rates of in vs.  out of ferrets.
 
We only place and adopt kits and shelter ferrets and do not call it a sale
for some quirky legal reasons.  If we sold them it would require us to sell
a ferret to anyone who wanted one.  If we are to screen and select from
possible new owners we must call it adoptions (we learned this from Fran
Wiles, AFA shelter subcommitte chair)
 
>I also have kind of a hangup about adoption "fees" because the one time I
>was at the local humane society, I noticed that the "adoption fee" was the
>difference between the cost of spaying or neutering (if necessary) and $75
>and I thought that was pretty unscrupulous of them.  (ie, if no spay or
>neuter was necessary, the "fee" was $75, and if it was, the "fee" was around
>$25).
 
We strongly suspect that an adoption contract included a clause about the
$25 dollar animal getting altered.  At least some of these types of shelters
WILL check up on it as we've got one of those dogs now.
 
We think this is okay - though it isn't our policy.  The biggest problem
facing dogs and cats has been overpopulation.  This policy is an attempt to
encourage spay/neuter programs.  Due largely to these sorts of programs
animal welfare groups are envisioning the day that even government sponsored
dog and cat shelters can become no kill.  At this point they can also
increase their work with other species such as ferrets.
 
Some ferret breeders have a pay back contract for kit sales where the price
is say $175 with $50 refunded with proof of spay/neuter.  But in any case
$50 is rather low for altering an animal especially a dog or cat.
 
>From:    Patricia Curtis <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: MF vs. CA
>Profit from the ferrets they sell, just like every other ferret breeder
>who 'sells' ferret.
 
Its known you don't like breeders.  But running the shelter is far far
closer to profitable than the breeding in our case.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1801]