It is now obvious that the comments made by Teri at AVAR and written as if
they represented that group were actually her own opinions.  It is unclear
how much over-lap exists.  It also appears that she may be an employee
rather than a board member; on that I am still unclear.  She is not a vet
according to their webpage.  The board members of the AVAR HAVE been
informed.  A bit of cross-referencing found the addresses for most, and
those who are receiving letters have been asked to pass on info to those
for whom addresses could not be found.  The hopes now are:
1. that the stream of misstatements is ended before the wrong person or
organization has a conversation with her, and
2. that lines of communication have finally been opened.  I have heard
from a fellow FML member (Didn't ask permission to say who here so am being
quiet.) that she tried to get information through a year or two ago through
Teri with no luck, perhaps knowing that -- as the AVAR board members will
once they get the letters that went out today -- will help improve
communications by them either telling Teri to not edit things, or by them
being personally accessible.
 
I think it's just a case of someone who has become so involved with her
work that she has forgotten when she ends and the AVAR begins, so she has
confused her own biases and information-interpretation limitations with
those of the board and the group in general.  This is easy to do, but it
sure has down-sides, Hopefully, the problems are now being tackled well
enough to make a difference before harm is done.
 
You'll be glad to know that the American Ferret Association and Modern
Ferret both came forward and offered to help with this situation.  Good
people!  (Hey, you knew that already; they over and over and over again
do so many things to help ferrets -- so here's a thank you to them.)
[Posted in FML issue 2920]