This is in response to an article published yesterday by Corynne, her
statement of the shelter ferrets be left in cages with no attention is
absolutely false.  The Rabbit, Rodent, and Ferret house has a complete
staff of paid workers and volunteers, such as myself(volunteering), who are
there on a daily basis seeing to the needs of the ferrets and helping the
shelter as much as possible.  I personally, handle all ferrets, if nothing
more than to say hello, and to make sure they are healthy or there are no
signs of illness.  I'm usually there 5 to 6 days out of the week.  The
ferrets have this huge play pen, and it is a walled off corner area(with an
air conditioner for summer), that the ferrets play in all day.  As we know,
some ferrets don't get along with other ferrets, so there are 3 separate
cages they are all kept in.  All ferrets are rotated through out the day
so everybody has play time and in the evenings, the borders are placed in
the pen to play.
 
Ferrets that are new to the shelter are not allowed to interact with the
resident ferrets until a quarantine period has passed and we can verify
or get them up to date on shots.  The health needs of the ferrets are met
without question or cost.  Today I took 2 ferrets to the vet, one to get
it's tail amputated for a lump, and the other for teeth cleaning.  The
little girl with the teeth cleaning was just dropped off to us and she has
some tarter buildup and her gums are starting to show sings of infection.
Again, no hesitation was given, nor do we wait for them to develop more
serious problems before doing anything, it just gets done.  In the event
an expensive surgery has been needed and cost was an issue, other employees
and volunteers have taken the ferrets and had the work done at their own
expense, so no ferret is left untreated.  An example of this is one
Employee, Wendy, has taken on the financial and housing responsibility to
have 2 adrenal ferrets surgery and will be left in her loving home and
hands.  The ferrets in this shelter get a lot of attention on a daily
basis.
[Posted in FML issue 3152]