Marie (Mary) Schatz wrote:
 
>I wish I had copied the post - but someone did mention that shelter turn
>in's were rising and asked how much longer could non kill shelters go on.
 
It seems to me to be somewhat seasonal.  As I recall, there seems to be
a flood around this time, which I usually chalk up to some of the
Christmas/Easter ferrets being dumped at shelters, and a flood around
late August/September as teenagers head back to school or off to college.
Sometimes it seems like reports of adrenal disease comes in waves-(maybe
tied to shedding season??), some of the shelter 'seasonality' might be
tied to that as well.
 
Joanne Dreeben, who runs a ferret shelter in Yonkers NY by me has more than
usual now-I spoke with her yesterday, she's up to 23.
 
But as ferrets become more popular, it's going to be more and more of a
problem.  Maybe it's time to try to get the 'regular' animal shelters
equipped for handling them better.  As the population grows, there will be
too many to keep in home based shelters.\
 
Shelter operators....please, I know it's hard, but at some point you have
to say 'no, I can't take on anymore right now.'  It will do no good to
burn yourself (and your finances) out because you took too many.  It may
be better to do more with fewer, than do less with more.  Can some of the
shelters who have dealt with this share what they've learned here about
setting limits and saying no?  (I've heard some stories about people who
call wanting to dump their ferrets and when the operator says they're full
trys to put the operator on a guilt trip.  Geez!!)
 
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2690]