I want to apologize for my caveman-like rant yesterday. In my excitement
to try and get you guys motivated, I got some facts wrong. I should
really read faster and drink less Irish tea, sometimes. I did get my
room cleaned in record time, however.
I want to thank Sukie for catching my mistakes, and explaining to me what
the USDA/APHIS can actually regulate. If one were to actually READ the
eDocket, one would get a better idea of what is going on. I had the USDA
leaping over tall buildings, and fixing all ferret problems in a single
bound. I figured if the government could take us to war, screw up the
entire economy, and jack up gas to over $3 a gallon, well - certainly
they could fix all of our ferret problems in a week or so. No, wait.
That's screwing things up. They can do that without blinking an eye.
Fixing ferret problems is going to take some work, and we're the ones
who need to help get it done.
OK, first off, I got the address wrong. If you are going to snail mail
them, the address is:
Docket No. 04-088-1
Regulatory Analysis and Development
PPD APHIS Station 3C71
4700 River Road, Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238
(This is on the PDF, which I failed to read thoroughly and completely.
I have since read it in it's entirety, and I would encourage you guys to
do so.)
Oh, and please - Do NOT call Dr. Jerry DePoyster and rant like a nutball.
That is something I probably would do, especially after three pots of
McGrath's. That would be wrong wrong wrong... The poor guy is trying to
help us, and we need to respect that.
Also, you need to send four copies of your letter to the above address.
Hey, it's a governmental agency; they like paper. No problem, just make
copies - boom boom boom. I'm making mine illegally at work.
OK, second off - things the USDA/APHIS/Docket No. 04-088-1 DOESN'T
regulate (thanks to Sukie for clarifying this for me. She only used a
small hammer):
Pet stores are not federally regulated. That is a local issue, regulated
by local licensed agencies, meaning that we still have to keep a watchful
eye on pet stores. And when talking to the pet store fails to resolve the
problem, we still need to talk to those licensed agencies to get it
fixed.
Unless there is a proven health problem, the USDA doesn't regulate
breeding practices. They would regulate proven health problems, such
as Aleutians disease. However, I don't think it would hurt to mention
the vast number of ferrets who get tumorous diseases such as adrenal
disease and insulinoma. Maybe if they hear the numbers they'll realize
something is wrong. But again, the cause for tumorous diseases is not
scientifically proven, and the USDA will not regulate anything that can't
be scientifically proven.
Now, for the stuff they CAN do something about:
Needed shipping regulations:
Kits are shipped too young to eat solid food resulting in failure to
thrive, prolapsed rectum and other issues. While being shipped, ferrets
have a need for frequent meals. There should be a regulated maximum
length of time in which ferrets should go without food and water. They
are also sensitive to temperature extremes, especially high temperatures.
If you look at American Airlines air cargo regulations, you will see that
they do not take full responsibility for maintaining temperatures:
http://aacargo.com/shipping/animals.jhtml
Other suggested regulations are:
A minimum shipping age - no less than 8 weeks, signalled by dental
eruption indicating that they can handle kibbled food (which is what
they're shipped with, and what pet stores usually feed their kits when
they get there). Altering incisions should be healed before shipping.
There should be minimum cage size standards, with opportunity for
exercise and social interaction. Ferrets are intelligent and complex
animals, thus there is a need for family/social groups to stay intact
as long as possible before being shipped out to be sold as pets. Doing
this would simply make ferrets more sociable as pets, and just be a good
thing all around.
Any stories and comments you have about these kinds of things are the
things that the USDA is looking for. They need your input. If you're
not sure how to word things, sample letters can be found at
http://www.ferretcongress.org/ ,
however your comments and letters do not need to be lengthy to have an
impact.
Oh, yes... I just wanted to point out that we are up to comment #20...
ahem. While I will apologize for my over-zealousness (and lack of sleep
and facts), I will not apologize for our apathy. We need to make this
eDocket a success. It will be the number of your comments and letters
which will get this thing done. I didn't know this before, but this has
already been tried a couple of times now, and so far each time it has
failed because of apathy. Apathy kills, people. Literally.
Remember, in writing your comments and letters, be respectful and polite.
They are legitimately asking for our input. They WANT to help us improve
conditions for ferrets. We have to let them know how to do that, and
that the problems we're talking about happen in numbers that would better
be served by regulation.
The links again:
eDocket comment page
http://docket.epa.gov/edkfed/do/EDKStaffCollectionDetailViewByID
?collectionId=APHIS-2005-0063
Standards for Ferrets PDF (at www.ferretcongress.org - lots of
information there!):
http://www.ferretcongress.org/USDA/usdacall.pdf
OK, am I done now? Thank god, I need my morning tea...
Roary
Albuquerque, NM
blog - http://ferretphilosophy.blogspot.com/
[Posted in FML issue 4972]
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