If that person (in TN, was it?) who has barely any ferret experience
at all and who insists that ferrets do not need vaccinations or much
vet care still wants to become a ferret shelter then perhaps what might
help most would be for the right shelter mentor to be found to teach
her. Someone else might click with her, or maybe hearing the same
basics from multiple people would help.

We all know from many years here the very many things that go wrong
when a person just plain does not want to learn and does not want to
provide vet care. I listed some of them yesterday.

Any of us who have been here long enough have read or them or even
helped in the rescues those situations needed, whether the disasters
were in private homes, stores, breeders, farms, or shelters. In
yesterday's post (written while still way too tired) I listed some of
the messes others have created that many kind FML members have had to
clean up through the years to help ferrets. Most of the people cleaning
up such messes for others, usually hoarding or abuse situations,
themselves run shelters. A bad shelter elsewhere creates problems for
good shelters.

I can fully understand the original poster wanting to prevent another
such situation. Face it, do any of us want yet another mess like some
of the ones list members have cleaned up for others through the years?

So, I understand that person's frustration, and I have seen many here
through the years express frustration and sometimes even anger. (At
times here just acting as friends do and listening does a lot of good.)

That said, maybe a DIFFERENT person running a shelter can click with
the ferret newbie person who wants to open a shelter, help her find
a vet who actually knows how to treat ferrets instead of the one she
quoted, maybe get her fostering with supervision so she can see if she
is up to it, and go through finances, medical care, cleaning needs,
exercise needs, etc. She very well may be a good person who means well
but someone needs to find a way to get her into learning more because
we all know what happens when people do not.

The frustration of the poster did not seem to have anything to do with
the person needing to learn. After all, we all need to learn, no matter
how many years or decades we each spend with ferrets. It would be no
surprise to me if the poster herself had a huge amount to learn when
she first began. I do not know, but would not be surprised because that
is not an unusual situation.

Instead her posted frustration seemed to be from the young woman's
***refusal*** to learn, her ***refusal** to accept the word of someone
with more experience that ferrets need a decent amount of veterinary
care, and the way she just could not get that basic and essential
information through to the young woman. We all know where a refusal
to learn can lead!

If people think about it:
*****one of the main characteristics of people running shelters that
do the best jobs for their ferrets has consistently been a strong
desire to learn*****
(combined with love, practicality, knowing when to set limits, and
finding ways to afford costs like veterinary care from a knowledgeable
vet, etc.).

Maybe a different FML person who runs a shelter can set the newbie on
a path that will create a real shelter; if that can not be done and no
one can get the health basics of ferrets through to her then there is
the risk of the FML community finding itself with yet another
heartbreaking rescue down the line. None of us want that again.

So, those of you who do not see why frustration can arise, do any of
you want to try teaching the newbie who wants to create a shelter so
that she can become open to learning because in not seeing why that
conversation was frustrating for the poster maybe you can be more
patient with the newbie, or do any other shelter people have ideas of
how you can try to get through to her?

[Posted in FML 8157]