>From: Patricia Curtis <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Shelter crowding
Animal welfare and animal rights protesting against pet fancy breeders is an
old argument that failed before.
>Running a shelter, it seems a major contradiction and conflict to condone or
>support any organization that encourages or supports breeding.
That rules out ever single major organization in ferrets. AFA, LIFE, NAFA,
FURO and STAR* all consist of shelters and breeders. That also puts in
contradictory to breeders that also run shelters or placement services such
as Zen and the Art of Ferret (us), The Ferrets of Pet Pals (Pam Grant),
Debbie Riccio, Just a Business of Ferrets (Vickie McKimmey), Montgomery
Ferret Rescue (Ellen Byrne), The Ferret Gallery (Chris and Cheryl Geodecke),
Warm Fuzzy Ferret Rescue (Clarence and Shirly Hertzog), Fran's Ferret Rescue
(Fran Wiles), ...
>Some feel that certain shelters are overcrowded or full due to neighboring
>shelters closing, well...DUH...if the shelters had to close, or stop taking
>in new rescues, most often it is because they were running over,
Since it is me who made this comment. None of the 3 shelters in Virginia
that closed did so because of overpopulation. Two were family situtations
(details not important) and one was medical condition of the director (again
details also private). But none of these were because of over crowding.
That left it to other Virginia, Maryland and even Pennsylvania shelters to
help. The only real problem was that one of these shelters was also a
breeder. It was the sudden "dumping" of the breeding operation that caused
the backlog. The load from the other shelters from normal rescues was
easily handled except for the former breeders and personal pets of that
shelter/breeder. Once the breeding operation ferrets are taken care of then
the normal load will work itself out amongst us.
>Does it matter which shelter did what as far as closing, or why, if there
>are still overloaded shelters?!
Yes. We can't solve the problem unless we know what the problem is. If we
assume that the problem is over population when it is really distribution
then we might HURT ferrets by trying to stop all breeding. If we stop all
private breeding in the United States then the ONLY source for ferrets will
be Marshall Farms and a few other ranches. Since most of us agree that MF
has problems such as early altering which is strongly suspected of causing
medical problems later in life as an example then we would have weakened
ferrets.
>I suppose there are some breeders who would say "we don't need to cut back
>production, we just need more shelters"...well what do you expect a person
>to say who makes his/her living from breeding ferrets.
Only the very largest ranches make their living from breeding ferrets. The
vast majority of us hobby breeders and small ranches tend to have other
jobs. Breeding ferrets is a sure money loser. Would it interest you to
know that our breeding loses us far more money than our shelter? The demand
for ferrets I spoke of is not a "projected" demand. It is a constant stream
of queries from people asking for pet ferrets. It is a constant stream of
queries from pet stores asking for ferrets since Marshall Farms can not keep
up with demand. We will NOT put our ferrets in pet stores. Please don't
start saying I "adamantly" support pet stores.
>I don't see any way a reasonably intelligent person can ignore these facts
>and say that MF is not 'over-producing' ferrets.
Strong words. When I have pet stores telling me that Marshall can not keep
up with demand though I tend to see things differently. Pet store ferrets
fill shelters because they are the impulse pets. When we get pet stores to
follow the lead some have taken by not selling dogs and cats and not sell
ferrets and encourage people to go to the hobby breeders we'll see more
progress. What if we try to put MF out of business because no one buys
ferrets from pet stores but instead from hobby breeders. The over
population problems with dogs and cats are getting better for reasons like
this and spay/neuter programs. Ferrets are ahead on the spay neuter part.
Behind on the pet store part.
For info on this check with "Animal People" a watchdog group within the
animal welfare and animal rights movement.
<http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/essays/remember_aim.html> discusses very
well this very topic. One short quote (from ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995.)
The push for pet breeding bans, meanwhile, violated both the
first and second rules of successful politics: never make enemies
needlessly, and never make a foe of a friend. Founded on the erroneous
contention that animal shelter euthanasias were up, when they were down
almost everywhere, it negated a dramatic positive achievement. It also
targeted a group, pet fancy-breeders, who were not only not
significantly contributing to pet overpopulation, but also had
long actively fought pet overpopulation through parallel support of
breed rescue groups, low-cost neutering clinics, and humane societies.
Lets not repeat with ferrets what failed with dogs and cats. Rescues and
breeders MUST work together to accomplish what both agree is the goal.
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1762]
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