Day before yesterday, on the July 15, FML, Ronnie from Mass included a
quote in her post regarding Petco stopping selling rabbits on December 23
1997.  I seem to remember that the House Rabbit Society had something to do
with this.
 
I wonder if we mustered the power of the FML and organized a letter writing
campaign to the big petstore chains if we might be able to encourage them to
not sell ferrets?
 
I do know that when I lived in CA, and was a child, I remember my brother
being involved with a humane group that pressured some of the larger pet
stores to stop selling dogs and cats.  They were very effective.
 
I think if such a thing were undertaken, we'd need to be especially polite
and persistant, not knocking the vendors or the stores themselves, but focus
instead on the complexity of keeping ferrets and the sheer numbers that end
up in the over burdened shelter system, due to the fact that the owners
weren't prepared for everything a ferret has to offer.  It might be
difficult for the big chains to ignore a couple of thousand letters
regarding this.  And if they did ignore a real deluge of letters, there
could potentially be some very bad press for Petco etc, with the right kind
of spin placed on it.
 
Thats not to say that every pet store carrying ferrets is "evil" or every
potential pet purchaser buying a pet there is a future bad owner.  Heck,
before I typed the word FERRET in my web browser, I was all set to just run
to Petco and buy a ferret and a few books on ferrets!
 
I think we can offer the stores our *support*.  And thats the key thing.  We
need to be providing education and adoption days and encouraging these new
ferret owners to be buying their supplies at the stores.  Dry goods tend to
be more of a profit item then live animals anyway - except for fish, but
that is a soap box I'm not going to get on right now!
 
I do think if we applied a concentrated effort we might be able to make some
changes, at least in the big chains.
 
Thoughts on this?
 
Ann
[Posted in FML issue 2373]