>From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Why?
>Could someone please explain to me why some people that run shelters also
>breed ferrets?
 
Could you explain why they shouldn't?  Breeders tend to know more about
ferrets that about anyone else.  They are well prepared for running
shelters.  Breeders also want to "give back to ferrets" so they help out
by running shelters.
 
>A friend of mine and I were pondering this question in our brains and
>we thought it was kind of stupid to be doing this.
 
Well thats encouraging to be called stupid...
 
>You have ferrets in shelters because of the over abundance of population
>and for other reasons as well so why breed?
 
Well its not an over-population problem.  Its a distribution problem.  Folks
have ferrets that don't want ferrets.  Other folks want ferrets.  Shelters
put them together in effect.  Breeders provide an alternative to pet store
early alters.
 
Pet stores normally sell ferrets as fast as they get them.  At least while
they are small.  If they grow a bit they get harder to sell.
 
We have no internal conflict doing both.  Lots of other breeders have no
qualms about running shelters either.
 
Other reasons we've heard include that some shelter operators need to be
around healthy ferrets to help deal with the hard luck cases.  Some
shelter/breeder folk have ideas on what might be wrong with ferrets and
have ideas on fixing it (such as trying German ferrets for breeding).
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2311]