Heather,
 
You make some very good points, but I'm not sure they are all relevant to
the question.  Though there are special cases, pet stores don't generally
cause shortened life spans.  For that you have to go back to the breeders.
And we all know who the leading breeder of pet store ferrets is.  (Please,
everyone, I do NOT want to start yet another Marshalls debate!  I would be
interested in hearing opinions about Path Valley ferrets, though -
separately!)
 
You encourage people to get a ferret from a shelter, but you yourself
mentioned that new owners often give up their pet store ferrets to
shelters.  So, the chances are that your shelter ferret is from the very
same pet store and breeder that you didn't want to buy from in the first
place!
 
I do agree with the point, however.  Shelter ferrets need homes more
desperately than store ferrets.  Taking home a shelter ferret does far
less to encourage corporate greed and the consequent over-breeding and
declining care of the animals than does purchasing one from a store.  I
simply do not think we can tie health and longevity to the shelter vs.
store debate.
 
I myself purchased my first from a pet store (I didn't know any better)
and later "rescued" a couple of pet store ferrets.  In this case, these
were not mistreated, but were simply "leftover" Christmas ferrets who
had been there two or three months.  They were nearly full growth and
thus were not likely to be bought.  (This pet store will discount them
after "a few months" and then who knows WHO is going to buy the "cheap"
ferrets.  I like that idea even less than I like the stores.)  This is
a bad practice itself on part of the stores.  Pushing Christmas pets is
just wrong, wrong, wrong.
 
I would do the same again.  Some pet store ferrets *do* need rescue.
However, the majority of healthy, perhaps too young, cute little
fuzzbutts do not.  Purchasing these does indeed further the corporate
ferret mill.  Purchasing ferrets from a store whose stock are
consistently sick, batch after batch, sends the message that whatever
poor treatment they are giving these animals is ok.
 
Perhaps after all we SHOULD only purchase the healthy, robust ferrets.
Perhaps that will encourage the stores that they have to treat their
animals well.  Unfortunately, the problem is one of exposure.  We can
talk to each other all day, make agreements, etc.  But the general
public and the first-time ferret owner don't get the message.  How do
we get this across?  It is perhaps unfortunate, but easy availability
of ferrets in pet stores has done a lot to promote their popularity and
acceptance as pets.
 
Educating store employees has all the difficulties you name.  This is
not an industry that attracts or pays for skilled, concerned workers.
Educating owners is also very difficult.  Even if you sell every new
owner a copy of "Ferrets for Dummies", how do you guarantee they will
read and follow it?  This is why I'm all for licensing owners.  You
have to be licensed to drive, why do you not have to be licensed to
care for another living creature?
 
I am not defending the stores here.  I agree, let's adopt from our
shelters.  As for the health problems, we have to look to the breeders.
What are our alternatives here?  Since becoming more "aware", I have
looked around for private breeders.  I had a hard enough time finding
shelters here.  They are not well advertised.  And as far as I know, there
is not a single breeder in the state of Florida where I live.  Private
farms are very few and far between.  This scarcity leads us right back,
unfortunately, to the big ferret mills.
 
These are big, complicated issues, and unfortunately we can't just
write off the stores or the big breeders.
 
Perhaps, for starters, we could convince a few more stores to host shelter
tables instead of selling their own, a la PETsMART.  The shelter gets
ferrets adopted, and the store gets the exposure and sale of supplies.
 
Roger, Digger, Bear, Fox and Sniffles
[Posted in FML issue 3764]