Hello all:
I have some distrubing news to share with everyone.  In 1996 there was
a woman named Mary Barbour who was breeding ferrets in her backyard in
Cecil County Maryland.  She advertised in all the papers.  During the
blizzard of 1996 a Rescue Shelter heard she caged and kept these ferrets
outside.  One of the shelter operators and a friend decided to visit
Mary Barbour pretending they were going to purchase some of her ferrets.
These women saw ferrets running loose in the snow, living in wood piles,
with no protection from the elements and just trying to stay alive.  One
woman distracted Mary Barbour, purchasing 2 older ferrets for $10 each,
while the other woman filled her snow pants up with 8 ferrets.  They
saved as many as they could that day but it has caused these women much
pain over the years knowing that they left behind many other ferrets.
Over the years this shelter continued to report this breeder to the
authorities but since they had food and water there was no crime in
their eyes.
 
On 9-25-04 Mary Barbour called this same shelter (not realizing it was
the same people from 1996) and said she had 4 ferrets that needed shelter
because she was being evicted.  (She had advertised in the papers to sell
these 4 ferrets also with no takers) The shelter agreed to take the
ferrets.  They called the Oxford Ferret Shelter who is much closer and
asked them to pick up the 4 ferrets.  Dee picked up the 4 ferrets who
were living outside in bunny bins.  When they got to the Oxford Ferret
Shelter they were infested with fleas so they had to spend their 1st
night in their new home in the barn.  The next day they were brought into
the house to be cleaned up, given vaccinations and tested for ADV.  I
have some very sad news.  2 of the rescued ferrets have tested POSITIVE
for ADV!
 
MARY BARBOUR is coming to a neighborhood near you!!!  She still has 1
ferret that she refused to give up!  Please pass her name around and make
sure noone sells ferrets to her nor allows her to rescue any ferrets.
She will do this again and again unless we stop her.
 
If anyone wants to send donations for these poor ferrets please send
them to: Oxford Ferret Rescue, 3916 Blue Ball Road, Elkton, Md. 21921.
They are a 501 c 3 non profit.  Anything you can send would be greatly
appreciated since they can never have a forever home and will spend the
rest of their lives in the shelter.
 
Here is a link of the poor babies and the horrible conditions they came
from.
http://www.photoisland.com/servlet/GuestLogin?username=deebick
if this doesnt work, go to www.photoisland.com and log into:
Log-in ID: deebick
Guest Password: rescue
 
Thank you all.
Lisa,   loving and kissing her boys, Sammy, Teddy, Casper & Max
 
[Moderator's note: couldn't get the images to show.  Hope it's just
temporary.   Dee or Lisa, can yu please check?  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 4652]