Kerry Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>"One Ferret Reduced to $79.00 from $149.00".
 
As much as I *despise* pet stores that do things like this I also have to
"defend" the rules of this store and chastise these two people.
 
>My wife wasted no time in pulling up the clear lid on the cage and scooping
>the one larger ferret out of the group. <snip>
>He was calm, and my wife was holding him when a salesgirl, about 18 or 19
>years old hurried over and told my wife rather excitedly, "they bite and
>that ferret bites really hard and won't let go.  You shouldn't be holding
>him, he's dangerous.  We don't like people holding them".
 
These "customers" reached into an animals cage without asking permission
and then when the sales clerk said to these people that they should not
be holding the ferret, the wife merely laughed at the clerk and ignored
her entirely!  (I have to wonder why it matters that it was a "girl" and
that she was "18 or 19")
 
>My wife extracted one of the other kits from the cage, scruffed it gently
>and began examining it to determine if it was a male or female.  Again this
>girl came over and almost screamed at us to "not hold the ferrets by the
>neck!"
 
At this point I would have phoned the police and told this couple to get
the hell out!  They were *told* not to hold the ferrets and yet blatantly
disregarded the instructions.  People who cannot follow basic rules are NOT
welcome in my place.  We have 50 to 100 people come into our shelter/store
on a daily basis and it's possible that this store too has a heck of a lot
of customers visit each day.  If every one of those customers were as
insensitive to a ferrets requirements as these people are, the poor
ferrets could have been disturbed 50 to 100 times each and every day!  As
"experienced" ferret people, do you suppose anyone would treat their own
ferrets so inhumanely?
 
>I began explaining to her about scruffing ferrets, but she became
>belligerent and said in a nasty voice, "when you buy it and take it home
>you can hold it by the neck all you want !"
 
You haven't heard "nasty" until you've reached into one of my cages and
scruffed one of my ferrets!  I am an "experienced" ferret person, and I do
NOT routinely scruff my ferrets. This is simply not necessary unless there
is a specific purpose.
 
>My wife and I then tried to explain to this idiot....................
 
These people walk into a store that obviously takes the welfare of the
ferrets in their care seriously; they disobey the rules, laugh at the person
in charge, brutalize the ferret by scruffing him and then dare to call the
person who is responsible for the ferrets welfare an idiot?  In an "attempt
to be kind" (because BIG insisted), this sounds at the very least, like the
pot calling the kettle black.
 
Sandi
Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House
[Posted in FML issue 2401]