Well, now I'm ticked off!
Anne Ryan wrote:
>I am dismayed to hear that you sell so many ferrets at shows. If you are
>willing to sell to pet stores, than you are obviously more concerned for
>your wallet than the ferrets. I am sorry that you are more concerned for
>the money you make than the general health and welfare of the ferrets
EXCUSE ME?!?!?!? Do you know me or anything about my ferrets, ferretry, or
my breeding practices? How dare you accuse me of not caring for the animals
I raise! I guess that by hand feeding (via direct tube to stomach) a litter
of 8 ferret kits every hour or sooner, taking time off my full time job to
do so, and possibly losing that job, means I don't care about the ferrets.
And am I overbreeding? How many ferrets do you think I produce a year?
Under 50 kits per year. And that would be a productive year!
As far as my wallet . . . let me tell you about it. As a breeder yourself,
I am sure you know all the costs that go into breeding ferrets - shots,
food, cages, water bottles, feed dishes, cage bedding, vet visits,
advertising, etc. And how about the costs to go to a ferret show? Entries,
advertising, vender table, carriers, show cages, gas, hotel, miles on the
car, time preparing ferret education material, printing that material,
printer cartrages, paper, pedigrees for the animals, club memberships,
registration memberships, USDA license fees, time off work, need I add more
to the list? Needless to say - the sales of my ferrets just barely covers
the cost to do all this breeding and showing - and most of the time I don't
even break even! I am not in it for the money!
If I don't care about my ferrets then why would I tell every customer that
they can call us at home with questions - 24 hours a day! Why, if I didn't
care about my ferrets, would I keep track of all the people that own my
ferrets, the name of the ferrets, etc? Why would I offer them my vet's card
and encourgage them to switch to a good vet? If I don't care about my
ferrets, then why do I refuse to sell to the many, many people that e-mail
me wanting to buy a ferret and have it shipped to them? I don't ship my
ferrets.
Some have suggested to me that you were angry at the sales of others and the
lower amout of your sales. That got me thinking. If this no sales or
adoptions rule is implimented to your shows, you will lose the breeders that
travel from other states to show, sell and promote their ferrets. This will
also greatly lessen your competition in sales and in the breeder classes in
the show ring - you being a breeder and all. Why would a buyer go states
away to purchase a ferret from me when they can go to you? Eliminate the
competition - increase your ferret sales. Sounds logical!
>We had over 100 altered ferrets shown at last years show. And by the
>way,our last show was a huge success, tables are already sold out for this
>years show with no breeders, Sponsorships are already almost sold out for
>this years show, again no breeders, and we anticipate a higher attendance
>than last year.
Well, goodie for you. Did you take into account the hobby breeders, out of
state people, and people looking to buy ferrets that won't attend because of
the rule?
>We prefer to promote the ferret as a pet...we prefer to discourage breeding
I hardly ever sell my ferrets unaltered. Gee - wouldn't that be promoting
ferrets as pets therefore discouraging breeding?
>... the few dollars we earned from renting tables to breeders wasn't worth
>the hold-up during vet check and the mess they left behind that we had to
>clean up.
You being a breeder and all - did you attribute to the "mess" the breeders
left behind? Do owners of alter ferrets not leave a mess? I guess whole
ferrets are messier than alter ferrets? Maybe alter ferrets don't poop as
much. We don't have this problem in my state or surrounding states. We
also start the vet checks very early so every ferret can individually be
checked. Also in my area, all exhibotors clean up after themselves. Maybe
you could charge dealers/breeders/shelters a fee up front for a clean up and
have it refundable if they clean up after themselves. If they don't clean
up, then the club would keep the money as a donation. Oh wait, that would
be putting money into your wallet and you don't care about that.
>I show plenty of ferrets and still have plenty of time to socialize. I
>also judge and help with organization of shows, teach ferret care and do
>pretty much anything anyone needs me to do.
So, while you are off socializing, judging, helping with the show, and
everything else, who is watching your ferrets?!? Are they unattended? I
also give FREE ferret awareness classes at local pet stores! Again this
takes up my time, money for education materials, etc. And I do it for free!
But I don't care about the animals.
I am done ranting - for now.
[Posted in FML issue 2222]
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