>From: Cris Page <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Do you really believe that having a few rules in place will do anything
>other than drive bad breeders underground? How do you propose to decide
>who is a breeder? Or are you proposing that no one except those
>registered is allowed to have kits? Licensing will have little effect
>on the numbers of kits being born.
There is going to be one big problem here - certain people who are doing
their form of ferret PR are advising people not to get their ferrets
neutered :-(
>As I have said before it will add a financial and administrative burden
>to those operating welfares. The way you go on about this (some may
>call it an *obsession* - re your post of a couple of days ago) People
>may believe that the country is awash with people who are falsely
>claiming to need money for animal welfare for whatever reason, sadly the
>case is that there are many GENUINE needs out there, more needs than
>there are donors, the abusers of this are few and far between thankfully.
I certainly don't want any more expense than I already have, the cost
of Public Liability Insurance is horrendous and more and more show
organisers are insisting that all people taking having a stall have PLI.
How much do people actually think that the ferret rescues make? Come on
let's be sensible here... there is no way that doing a ferret PR during
the 'show season' is going to see a ferret welfare / rescue through the
winter months without the person running the rescue using their own
money.
>Answer me this, when does someone become (in your eyes) a collector?
>is it when they have Ferrets that cant be rehomed, due to health or
>behaviour issues? So should the "rescuer" be forced to decide between
>covering the cost of whole life care for the creature in question, or
>have the unfortunate creatures Killed off if they are unable to bear the
>costs alone?
Ferret welfare is not only concerned with rescue work; it also takes in
the education of the general public about ferrets. Advice on neutering,
feeding, housing, working and handing out information leaflets. There is
also the entertainment part of it - the Ferret Racing, most members of
the public love to have a little flutter on the racing. The Charity
Commission don't like Ferret Racing :-( To put on a good display you need
a number of ferrets - ferrets need rest times, you can't expect the same
ferret to be 'on duty' for 8 hours plus. You also need ferrets that are
steady with strangers... a number of ferrets bouncing around in a 'play
pen' is a great draw - after about an hour of madcap playing most ferrets
are ready for a nap so you swap 'em over and get a fresh gang out to
amuse the public.
>Im not saying there are not collectors out there, but I dont see
>regulation as being the saviour you proclaim it to be, its just
>regulation for the sake of it. You seem to be very focussed on
>money, my concern is the welfare of the ferrets.
Regulation just means loads of red tape and very little to show for it,
some of us have more important things to deal with than the endless form
filling that regulation would bring. Someone appears to have some very
queer ideas about how much is made by doing Ferret PR at shows.
>>Now we have our first registered ferret rescue with more to follow, how
>>bad is that.
>
>Very bad if it leads to less refuges for an often misunderstood creature,
>regulation by its nature grows year on year, how long before all the
>smaller concerns are regulated out of existance leaving only the larger
>animal shelters, most of whom are ill equipped to handle ferrets and dont
>understand them like those who run the "dedicated" ferret rescues now.
I agree with Cris on this one - it could lead to the dedicated one person
operated shelter disappearing altogether and it is the ferret that will
suffer. I take ferrets from several shelters in this area, they are
registered charities, but can't be bothered with ferrets :-( Now that
is bad news for the poor ferret.
[Posted in FML issue 4427]
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