I'll be donning some flame proof clothing now.  If you intend to attack
please limit your attacks to me.  I don't care.  Please do not attack my
family, they have been tortured enough by 'ferret friends'...
 
>From:    "Sheri M." <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Shelter discussion
>If you are a desperately over-crowded shelter, admit it to yourself and
>help us find some answers.
 
Unfortunately if shelter operators are willing to admit a weakness there
are too many who are competitive about this.  We will help as best we can
with those shelters with problems.  Local shelter operators know we are
extremely generous in helping shelters in need.  But unfortunately they
need to be prepared for some others.
 
We were in this situation last year.  We admitted a problem.  The majority
of responses from people were great!  BUT the response from some and
unfortunately some of them were also 'shelter' types was to claim they
were better in some way or to make it harder on us.  Some who have on the
FML bragged on themselves while there is some evidence that their shelters
are not as wonderful for the ferrets as they claim are among the worst at
attacking us for our weaknesses.
 
Unfortunately some of these 'shelters' have convinced others that we do not
get along with other shelters.  Those that want to really know can merely
ask some of the other (escpecially local) shelters what we've done to help
them.
 
It was another 'shelter' that called yet another 'shelter' that actually
called the county animal control in our county about us.  One of the people
had never even seen my house (and never will).  The other was someone who
held a grudge against me because I wouldn't give her a free place to live
after the way she treated my family.  She hadn't been to my house in almost
a year when she was spreading lies.  Apparently it was a realization that
her best chance to "get me" was before we could place out the ferrets.
Another 'shelter' was publicly using the very fact that we were visited by
a county officer to try to cause more trouble.  Taking comments from the
Frederick County animal control out of context was just part of it.  There
was even talk from some about some sort of vigilante ride out to rescue
ferrets by taking them away from us.  Of course nothing came of the
inspection.  Well okay actually we made a friend of the deputy that
visited.  She likes our animals and commented on how well cared for they
were.  She did note that gosh - whole male ferrets don't smell so good.  Oh
and she noticed that since she was there in the morning we hadn't cleaned
litter pans yet that day - we do it in the evening after it cools off
during the summer since we take the cages and litter pans out side to use a
pwer washer on them.
 
Here is part of the problem...
 
>From:    Josephine Hansen <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: adoptions and shelters
>I'll suport my shelter even if she decides to keep to many, couse im not
>there 48 hours a day, crying over the cruelty of humans, the incrediblle
>carelessness, i can go home to my well cared for fuzzies and play with
>them and forget the heartbreking day at the shelter, at least for a while.
 
Shelters that spend so much time attacking ferret owners or former owners
are NOT doing the best for ferrets.  Some people are so misanthropic that
what seems a love for ferrets might be instead a unhealthy hatred of
humans.
 
Why do some of these 'shelter' types call themselves ferrets instead of
people?  Put all the pieces together and that doesn't always look like a
cute name for themselves but rather a sign of something else.
 
People aren't that bad.  The vast majority of ferrets turned into shelters
were NOT abused.  The mere fact that they were turned in rather than merely
killed shows at least some love for the animals.
 
Caring for shelter ferrets shouldn't be heart breaking.  There are the bad
cases but they are the minority.  There seems to be a competition among
some 'shelters' to prove that they have taken in more or worse abuse cases
than other shelters.  Seems to sometimes be merely a donation gathering
ploy - its easier to get sympathy and donations from severe cases than from
the normal turn ins.
 
The reaction of some of these 'shelters' isn't a sign of really caring
about ferrets.  Hatred was the driving force in their actions.  Read some
of the responses to Bob's comments and they are full of ego and venom.
 
Overly tough placement restrictions are not the sign of a love for the
ferrets.  Its possibly a sign of hatred for people or of an over-riding ego
where they think only they are good enough to care for those ferrets.
 
We've actually found that the hard luck cases are NOT the hardest to place.
The old and inform can get placed fairly easily - many Americans at least
tend to favor underdogs and will adopt these ferrets because they have the
problems.
 
It is better for ferrets to live with owners than to live in shelters.
 
-bill
--
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2516]