>Carole has taken in Lisa's ferrets on at least one occasion and kept them
>without charge for over 6 months. Does this sound like someone whom Lisa
>wouldn't trust?
This is at best an exaggeration - someone has been feeding you erroneous
information. Fred you weren't here and have no idea what you are talking
about. I asked Carole about 3-4 years ago to take care of three ferrets
while I worked out a personal and medical problem. Those ferrets were
Garrett, PeeDee and Bandit. I gave her food, medications and money (I
have the canceled check) to care for those ferrets and she had them about
a week. She has not taken care of any of my ferrets since then. I have
also in the past 3 years donated at least 100 pounds of food, various
medications, supplies, etc., to Carole.
>She doesn't turn any of them away. In fact the local Humane Societies
>all over the Tide Water area call Carole. I know as my wife and I went to
>Williamsberg with Carole to pick up two ferrets at the H..S office there.
>As a matter of fact Carole has taken in ferrets that Lisa would not.
>That is fact. I am not trying to bash Lisa but I will let the facts
>stand as I know them.
In the nine years of sheltering, I have *never* turned away a ferret from
the SPCA, A/C or Humane Society. The local shelters contact *both* of us
and turn the ferret over to whomever gets there first. That's a known
fact. I have picked up ferrets from Hanover County, Peninsula SPCA,
Norfolk SPCA, Norfolk Animal Management Center, Chesapeake Animal Control,
Portsmouth Humane Society, Virginia Beach Animal Control, Virginia Beach
SPCA, just to name a few. As per recommendations from STAR*Ferrets,
when I have reached my limits on the number of ferrets that I had, I
recommended to those wanting to owner release a ferret to me to try and
keep the ferret from entering the shelter system by giving them ideas on
placing the ferret themselves. If they turned around and called Carole,
that is totally out of my control.
I have never refused to take a ferret based on condition - the only time
that I have 'turned people away' or in my opinion, given them the tools
to try and find the ferret a home themselves is when I was full. You are
bashing me without knowing all the facts. Read what STAR recommends - the
last thing is to have the ferret enter the shelter system. Recommended
are: talking to your vet, talking to your friends/neighbors, placing a
classified ad, etc.
>As to the allegations that ferrets were being dumped onto Lisa is in fact
>an out and out lie, period, plain, and simple. Carole has NEVER NEVER,
>dumped a ferret on anyone. She isn't that type of person. It would be
>against her morale fiber to do so.
I never said that Carole was dumping the ferrets on me. EVER. If
Danielle misunderstood a comment made in a conversation with another
person, the fact remains that this is not what I said.The situation that
came down in LV was verified by three different parties that Carole was
closing her shelter and was needing to place 100+ geriatric ferrets NOW
due to a zoning problem. That she had already placed her 'breeders and
babies' (this is a direct quote) with Sue Selby. No numbers of the
breeders or babies were mentioned and I did not speculate on their
numbers. Since it was a zoning issue in Virginia Beach (Which both my SO
and I told the parties involved was nonexistent) any shelter in Virginia
Beach would not have been able to take them.
>OK so the inspector comes out and sees all the ferrets and and suddenly it
>is against the law to run a ferret shelter in VaBch. Well Carole and her
>husband Tom went to a hearing the next week, and guess what???
Carole panicked. Before finding anything out or doing any research, she
began calling all the ferret people in our area - the messages that I was
receiving was that they had to be out, NOW. It wasn't until I got back
from LV on Monday that we were finally told there would be no rescue. The
chain of events leading to the announcement began with Carole, not with me.
>Now the plot thickens.. For what reasons I can only guess at, Lisa then
>made some angry appeal to resuce ferrets from some horrible situation that
>didn't even exsist.
Apparently Carole misunderstood, and the attitude of the authorities
originally led her to some understandable conclusions, thereby starting
the chain of events calling all the local ferret people for help. If
this issue had been fully researched first, perhaps the misunderstanding
never would have happened. I have been involved in three previous
breeder/shelter rescues and they turned to me for help because of my
experience in dealing with dispersal, etc. There was a previous similar
situation with another Virginia shelter that I was aware of - and the
final determination is that there are no laws regulating ferrets in
Virginia. We tried to nip this in the bud, but the fact is that the
situation was already out of control. There was no way that any one
shelter could have afforded to take care of 100+ elderly ferrets and we
knew it. We were contacted and we had to be ready - this was throughout
Virginia. The appeal for help at the Symposium was just that - to help
defray the monetary costs of taking care of these ferrets - including any
potential veterinary expenses, shots, ADV testing, etc. Anyone that was
involved in setting up the rescue and funds were notified as soon as I
knew that the rescue wouldn't happen. Ask them. I can name names if I
have to. The biggest reason why I did not post anything to the FML is
because it didn't happen - so why mention it? There was no need.
The 'crisis' was of a time sensitive nature, and since I was not in
Virginia but in LV, I was organizing efforts (with the help of a number
of other folks/shelters) to see that the ferrets could be transferred out
of the Virginia Beach vicinity as quickly and safely as possible. People
were asking me to organize it somehow and with a number of other Virginia
shelter operators we were doing everything possible to formulate
contingency plans for this. I also specifically did mention that if the
rescue didn't happen that the money wouldn't be needed.
>I don't know if Lisa was given incorrect info or just was trying to raise
>money for her own shelter but it was inexcusable to do so without first
>contacting Carole and getting the story straight. I question Lisa's
>motives here very, very, much.
My motives were and are in making sure that the ferrets would not be
destroyed. That was one of the things that Carole kept telling everyone -
"They(zoning) are going to take the ferrets." The information that I was
given was coming to me from people in direct contact with Carole. I had
no reason to question it at the time and I stand behind my statements made
at the symposium 100%. Just as an aside, not one penny came to me and I
never asked for donations to my shelter. The facts are the facts - the
money that was donated went straight to SOS - you can verify that with
Georgia, Ela or Judith. Some of may even remember that at the time I
pledged $500.00 towards the veterinary care of these ferrets at the
symposium.
>I also found it interesting that this person told me that Lisa Leidig has
>given some ferrets to this same shelter (about two years ago) because she
>couldn't keep them. I do recall Lisa saying that she had as many ferrets
>as she could handle (28?) and that she couldn't handle taking more
>(especially geriatric ferrets).
See the above. I never turned over any ferrets to Carole because I
couldn't care for them - she was watching them and was paid for doing so.
Responsible sheltering is knowing what your limits are - and the original
reason for the rescue was a zoning problem in Virginia Beach. If that
was true, I could not have taken any of the ferrets and they were never
offered to us anyway. By the way on average I take in about 100 ferrets
per year and have a better than 90% adoption rate. My numbers at any one
time may never be over 35, but I do average about 8 adoptions per month.
I have even been somewhat successful in placing older ferrets requiring
medication in approved homes. Shelters are supposed to be a temporary
stop over - not a permanent home.
Finally, I find it quite amusing that one person in particular who speaks
of 'bashing' did not approach me directly at any time but instead posts a
defamatory email to the FML. Danielle had several opportunities at the
Symposium as well as at any time afterwards via email to contact me
directly. She instead resorts to innuendo and badmouthing - something
that she accused me of. That lends itself to the fact that she is not as
impartial as we are being led to believe. If anyone was upset or angry -
why didn't they let the courage of their convictions speak up? Because I
was never approached at the symposium about anything said - and in fact I
never received any emails about it - even to this moment...is it possible
that it has more to do with the messenger than the message? Or personal
dislike and jealousy coloring her responses? I stand by what I said at
the time it was said.
Lisa Leidig, Head Ferret
The Ferret Haven "By-the-Sea"
www.ferrethaven.org
[Posted in FML issue 3691]
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