I must also speak in defense of any comments or insinuations of Kista
Shelter or Kim Rushing being less than acceptable.  To the contrary, in the
time I have been lucky enough to know Kim, I have seen her take in large
amounts of ferrets in horrible condition and do remarkable things with
them... seen her cry in pain when one is beyond her help, seen her fight
with all her might to save one.
 
Besides the tremendous task of operating her own shelter, she has always
been there for me whenever I had questions, problems or just need a
shoulder to cry on or pep talk.  When I got slammed with many ferrets at
once a while back, she was one of the first to send a care package..  when
she got slammed a few months back, I sent her one.  Isn't that what we are
supposed to be doing??  Helping each other for the good of the ferrets???
 
If former drug use, or drinking or any of that makes us unfit animal
owners... I daresay I think a LOT of us are in trouble.
 
I DO agree with the general comments of checking into a shelter before
deciding to donate to them.... also if you have real reason to believe a
shelter is harming the ferrets in any way, report it to their local animal
control and let them investigate.  I am not so naive as to try to say there
is never any shelters out there that are scams or doing harm... it can and
does happen.  But handle it in a correct manner.  Spreading unfounded
rumors, harassing people etc is not the way to deal with it.  All that
accomplishes (IMHO) is making ALL shelters look bad.... and in the end, the
only ones who suffer are the ferrets who may not be able to get the help
they need.
[Posted in FML issue 3057]