>OK, a rescue did take place. That much we know, and that is the most
>important thing.
Agreed, the ferrets ARE the most important thing.
There is one clarification here - Stephanie's mother apparently did
not contact the ferret groups directly, she contacted Dr. Labonde,
who in turn contacted Kathy T. of Furetti (who is a client of his) for
help. Kathy, who was in the process of moving called April and Front
Range Ferrets to handle the situation. The actual rescue of the ferrets
was by April, Travis and Kim, who is the President of Front Range
Ferrets. This was not intentionally left out - it was originally
abbreviated because at the time, it didn't seem like it was very
significant information. We still don't feel it is, but if it helps
clear up questions than we're happy to elaborate.
>Still, we are probably not being told the truth about everything.
>Furetti, isn't in Colorado any more.
Yes, that's true. And the matter was briefly addressed in yesterday's
FML post as follows:
"Furetti has moved to Ohio and Ferret Moms and Front Range Ferrets
have taken over that operation. April is over there every day with
Liz, the owner of Totally Ferret, and other helpers to clean up and
play with these ferrets".
>I've never heard of Colorado Ferret Moms and no ferret person I've
>contacted has either. There are no past posts or references or old
>websites for them. Nothing. I seriously doubt they ever existed before
>their names appeared about a week ago with this rescue.
Because you've never heard of Colorado Ferret Moms they must not
exist? Ferret Moms is a nation-wide, invite only, yahoo group -- sort
of a red hat society. It's a group of ladies that all work together for
the welfare of ferrets and of course, they all own and love ferrets.
They currently have 19 members. They are not a shelter. There are a
lot of reputable ferret people in Ferret Moms, names you see all the
time posting on the FML and such. Colorado Ferret Moms are, of course,
the Colorado members of the nation-wide Ferret Mom's group. Because
of privacy issues, I will not post any names here, but if they feel
compelled, they can speak up on the FML themselves to verify their
existence.
> OR Front Range Ferrets:
Okay, this question requires some history. A few years ago, April of
TF and a friend started a ferret club they named Furetti. As so often
happens with ferret groups, April saw the group going in a direction
that she didn't feel she wanted to go in, so she left the club and took
the name Furetti with her (since she started the club). The other group
re-named themselves the Mile High Ferret Club.
April's vision for Furetti has always been to make permanent
contacts at the local county animal shelters so that when ferrets
come in, they contact Furetti to pick them up, ensuring that they
are not euthanized and that they do not sit in county shelters where
the employees may or may not know how to properly care for them.
Kathy T. was a very valued member of Furetti, who wanted to start a
ferret shelter and had asked April if it was okay for her to use the
name Furetti for the shelter. Being great friends, April agreed to let
her have the name for her new shelter in her new home state of Ohio.
She moved there on March 6, 2009, which was only a few days ago.
Since Furetti would now be a shelter in Ohio, folks felt that a new
group was necessary to pick up ferrets from local shelters and assist
ferrets in need throughout the area. The new name they selected was
Front Range Ferrets. This group began only a month ago, right after
Kathy T. told them she was moving to Ohio. Liz, one of the owners of
Totally Ferret sits on the Board of Front Range Ferrets. April is a
member of Front Range Ferrets but does not sit on their Board.
Something else you may not be aware of is that April's mom runs a
ferret shelter in Colorado called Daisy Day Care and Ferret Rescue.
They are not listed on the AFA or SOS shelters lists, but they do
exist.
There is also a group called The Ferret Council, which has members
from IFC, FERRET, SOS, AFA, National Ferret Rescue and a shelter
Representative, Barb Clay. Barb hosts a yahoo group specifically for
ferret shelter operators, which is a subgroup of The Ferret Council.
She has asked shelter owners nation-wide to join her group so that they
would have a forum to post emergencies, problems, ask for advice, etc.
and The Ferret Council would have a vehicle to contact shelters in case
of emergencies.
The people involved in this rescue from afar don't usually work with
strangers, especially when they have contacts all over the country.
To what group are you referring? F.E.R.R.E.T.? National Ferret Rescue?
SOS? Do you think that any ferret group personally knows ALL ferret
shelters and ferret groups? This is impossible. The best they can do is
to have a few key people that they trust in as many states as possible,
so that when problems arise, they can ask for intel or assistance from
them.
>I honestly can't imagine why someone involved in a rescue would want
>to go to such lengths to hide who they are or why, legitimate groups
>would help them with this, but that's the only conclusion I can come
>up with. This thing is underming my faith in individuals and groups
>that I have always trusted. I really think it's time to get the real
>story about this.
April has been contacted by a certain ferret group in Colorado about
adopting some of these ferrets. She has repeated several times to these
folks that they think they have homes (not shelters, but HOMES) for all
17. We have been posting that since the beginning. You can imagine how
easy it is to fall in love with a ferret you are rescuing from such a
deplorable situation. And again, it's only 17 ferrets - not 100. This
group is having a very hard time understanding this concept and they
continue to email April asking for "Box Ferrets". We are beginning to
think that this anonymous post is coming from that group. Are you
really interested in understanding the mechanics of this rescue? Or
are you angry because you are not getting the response you wanted from
April et al? Could this post be from the very club that did nothing
when Stephanie called them a month ago? We could have posted the name
of this club, as the fact that they didn't even bother to notify any
of the larger groups is a sore spot with rescuers. But April felt the
adult thing to do was to talk to them about what happened to make sure
the mistake was not repeated - ever, not to publicly berate them.
Nobody is hiding anything - you just don't understand. And instead of
just asking the question outright, you opt to insinuate that these
groups don't exist and someone must be pulling the wool over your eyes.
Our apologies if this anon post is not from that ferret group. We would
be happy to explain any part of the rescue that you believe is unclear.
It is very important for the success of future rescues that we all work
as a team.
[Posted in FML 6268]
|
