I have been seeing a whole bunch of artilces, letters and opinions about
pet shops and the big name pet companies that seem to be exploiting pets,
especially our stretched out fur balls.
 
I know we cannot put all pet stores and shops into one big catagory.  That
is what we as ferret owners are trying to stop, stereotyping.  Not all pet
stores exploit ferrets.  Not all big companies exploit ferrets.  But then
again, some do.  Some Petsmarts are nice, caring, while others are only
after one thing, the big green dollar.  They could care less about you
animal as long as you are purchasing your product from them and only them.
 
My experience here in Utah when dealing with most pet stores and Petsmart is
this, they are exploiting the ferrets.  Petsmart has refused to help out in
simple things like petition drives and properly educating people about
domestic ferrets.  This has no cost to them and could only benefit them in
the long run.  But do they care, NO.  Yet they have quadrupled their ferret
products.  If this is not exploitation, than I don't know what is.
 
As for several of our smaller pet stores in the valley and other valleys in
Utah where ferrets are legal.  Again, they are refusing education material
U.F.O. offers about ferrets.  They refuse to help legalize them, yet they
are selling the ferrets illegally and selling tons of ferret supplies.  Is
this exploitation?  I think so.
 
Just like the title of this article says, these people have to remember who
butters their bread.  Ferrets sales are big buck for the stores.  As I
stated earlier, you don't just buy a ferret, you buy a ferret, a ferret
cage, food, toys, harness, books (hopefully) and other stuff.  Then after a
few weeks you buy another ferret and a bigger cage and more stuff than
another ferret and more stuff.  How many ferret owners only stick with one
furry weasel?  Not many.  Oh yes, I will receive e-mails from those of you
out there that will tell me you only have one, but are you going to commit
to that one ferret forever?  They are just like potato chips, you cant just
have one.
 
So the point is this, for all of you who state your local pet store, petco,
petsmart do wonderful things for ferrets, think about the dozens who don't.
Count your blessings and just remember some of us are not that lucky.
[Posted in FML issue 2376]