>From:    Sandi Ackerman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Unpleasant experience with bill and diane
 
That is an extremely deceptive subject.  You have never had an experience
with us.  That is rude and uncalled for.  Perhaps we should have let this
post go unanswered but there are a few isconceptions we wanted to clear up.
 
>We wonder why some breeders have a holier than though attitude towards
>those of us who are involved in only rescue work.
 
We don't.  Ask the "pure" shelters we go out of our way to help.  Actually
we know of no hobby breeder that doesn't treat shelters with the utmost
respect.  Quite often shelters and breeders are indeed the same people.
 
>>A shelter operating out of a store front should expect to be treated
>>like a store.
>Interesting concept; sounds like a dirty word from the tone of your
>statement.
 
Really?  Which word sounds dirty to you?
 
But if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck then it must be a duck.
That is the way people seeing a "storefront" will take whatever it is in
there to be a store.
 
>All of the humane societies in our area and in most areas of the US of A
>operate out of a store front, they too sell supplies in an attempt
>to support a portion of their shelter and I'm proud to be one of those
>non-profit shelters who care very deeply for dumped ferrets
 
Very few "ferret shelters" operate out of store fronts.  None that we know
of on the East coast.  We do not know about the large ones in Florida or
Chicago as we haven't visited them.  Most in the Mid-Atlantic operate out
of private homes.  Ours included.  Many do operate as vendors of various
supplies for both ferrets and ferret owners but none look like a store.
Neither do the cat or dog rescues we've been to look like stores.
 
All of the SPCAs or Humane Societies that we've been to operate out of
buildings that do not look like stores but instead look like ... well ...
animal shelters.  None peddle merchandise.  Perhaps Washington state is not
like Virginia.  And perhaps your idea of a shelter is different from all
we've seen in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.  We can't say what is the
one and only true way.  We do not believe in one "perfect" way to operate a
shelter.
 
>You really don't get it do you!
 
If that is your opinion.  We are quite convinced that if a ferret shelter is
really interested in what is best for the ferret, then their goal will be to
place ferrets rather quickly.  Too much time in a shelter is very likely to
be bad for the ferrets.  We in turn think you need to step back and rethink
some of your statements.
 
>I do NOT want to be in the shelter business!  The humane societies do
>not wish to be in the shelter business.
 
This is and is not true.  If you or these humane societies really did not
want to do this type of work you wouldn't.  Your reason maybe that you feel
compelled by a deep caring for ferrets - but that caring means you want to
help them and your way to help them is to run a shelter.  There is no one
forcing you to do this anymore than anyone is forcing us to run a shelter.
We do this because it makes us feel better.  We feel better because we like
most people get a warm feeling inside from helping some one (whether that
someone is a ferret or human).  We do not blame someone else for what we are
chosing to do.  We chose to run a shelter.  Its not Marshall Farms' or Path
Valley's or any hobby breeder's fault that we choose to run a shelter.  Its
our choice.
 
>We're in business only because there are too many animals being bred and
>dumped onto the impulse buying public.
 
We emphatically disagree.  We have had far far fewer turn ins from "impulse"
buyers than from folks who had an unexpected change in their lives that made
it better for the ferrets to be moved to a different home.
 
Actual neglect has been seen but its rare.
 
Ferrets as throwaways have not been seen by us in large numbers.  A few but
not many.  This could be the type of area we lived.  Mighly mobile military
familes are forced against their will quite often.
 
There are far too many areas in the country where people are desperate to
get ferrets.  There are shelters that have waiting lists since they have
more people wanting ferrets than they have ferrets!  We'll stick to our
belief that it is a distribution problem.
 
There will always be people that despite any inate nobility that they have
get into a situation where they can not keep their pets.  These people will
still need the services of shelters.  That is just the way life is.
Condemning all breeders will not change that.  If all breeders were to quit
then the ferret would be extinct in a bit more than a decade.  That would be
terrible.  Breeders are necessary.
 
>Bill and diane's ferrets belong to then and they can continue to sell them
>to whoever walks through their front door.
 
It is both insulting and untrue to insinuate that we will sell ferrets to
just anyone.  We have stated some of our criteria here on this list before.
They are the same for our kits and for our shelter residents.
 
>BUT....as long as there are people who follow THAT path there will be
>those of us who have to follow behind with a pooper scooper.
 
You have never had one of our ferrets in your shelter.  No kit that we have
placed with the general public has ever ended up in a shelter.
 
You refuse to accept that ferret breeders can be responsible.  Thats too
bad.  It alienates you from potential allies.  The Baltimore Ferret Club for
example is sponsoring a show that's express purpose is to help out three
deserving local shelters.  Many of the primary people doing the work are
"breeders".  We are all supposed to be on the same side if we are truly
working in the interest of ferrets.  We don't all have to do the same things
and in the same way.  Pure insults do no human and no ferret any good.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2249]