Dona Reid wrote:
 
>I think it is a shame that backyard breeders keep churning out ferrets when
>so many are homeless!  Look at all the unwanted cats and dogs and you can
>see what the future may bring for ferrets.  I'm all for spaying and
>nuetering to keep the population down .
 
What might your defintion of a backyard breeder be?  I agree that there are
many folks out there who shouldn't be breeding ferrets, and I have taken
their ferrets into my shelter on a number of ocassions, but there are
terrific hobby breeders out there, like myself, and I wonder if you're
calling *me* a backyard breeder?  Responsible breeders are *not* the
problem.  Ferret owners are the problem, and without this proper
perspective, all you are doing is making a blanket statement based on an
emotional judgment.
 
Our breeding ferrets are treated just like out neuters, except they produce
a litter every year or so.  They get lots of love and affection and time out
to play in the house everyday. We don't condone early spays/neuters so we
sell our kits with a non-breeding contract and the price includes their
spay/neuter, vaccines and tattoo.  We follow up on all kits and ensure they
are altered by the appropriate age.  No ferret leaves here unless we are
certain that the new owner understands ferret ownership and is prepared to
take the best possible care of their pet.  They also sign a contract that
goes home with them and ensures that the ferret will be returned to us in
the event they can no longer keep the ferret.  We are committed to our
fuzzies.
 
The majority of ferrets we get in our shelter are over the age of 2 years -
about the time when folks who bought on impulse decide a ferret isn't all
fun and games after all, and it's time to move on.  Some are from pet
stores, some are from breeders who told them "you bought it, you get rid of
it." Folks cannot buy on impulse from us - we offer wait lists for planned
litters, months and months in advance, so people have plenty of time to
learn from us, from members of the club I encourage them to join, and from
the materials we direct them to.
 
If we work this hard to produce beautiful, healthy and socialized ferret
kits, where's the harm?  One woman in our area wrote a scathing article
about ferret breeders and recommended pet stores over breeders, because she
could not justify more ferrets being brought into the world.  I guess she
assumed that pet store ferrets just *appear* in the wood chips in the store.
She went on to say that she would support a breeder who fit into the
following conditions, one of which was that the breeder did not sell kits to
pet stores, because then there they can't be placed carefully!  Hypocrisy or
idiocy, I cannot be the judge - what I can say is that people get into an
anti-breeding mind set that prevents them from seeing the issue clearly.
 
It is owners who buy on impulse when they see a litter of kits that are the
problem.  It's owners who don't get the information they need when they
think about purchasing a kit and get in over their heads that are the
problem.  And it's owners who never should have a pet at all that are the
problem.  What's the solution?  We screen carefully, and hard; we supply
reading materials and have seminars for prospective owners; we try to
convince first time owners to adopt a rescue instead of buying a kit; and if
we feel someone isn't going to make a good owner, we refuse to sell them a
ferret.
 
When I bought my first ferret (from a pet store) they didn't tell me about
neutering/spaying, they didn't tell me anything I needed to know about
owning a ferret.  For years, as I muddled my way through mistake after
mistake, I wished there had been a breeder I could have bought from who
could help me out as I raised my BooBoo Bear.  That's why we are committed
to being the right kind of breeder now.
 
Lots of the ferrets who are in the shelters are early spays/neuters -
altering them hasn't solved the problem, has it?  The problem is *not* the
good breeder, or the good owner, it's the lousy owner and the profit driven
pet store.  You can't lump all breeders under one nasty tag.  I would love
to see my shelter go out of business because there was no need for it.  And
maybe if everyone was forced to buy their kits from responsible committed
breeders who screen, instead of from pet stores who are obligated to sell to
anyone who has a credit card, the shelters just might be in better shape
than they are now, not to mention the poor abandoned ferrets.
 
Sheena and 23 Wonderful Wherret Ferrets
 
Sheena - [log in to unmask]  | "To Err is Ferret ... To Forgive|
VP - Ferret Association     | "... Well, That's Our Job"      |
     of Greater Vancouver   (The Wherret Shelter is temp. closed)
  We're on the Web! http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1763]