I have been overwhelmed worrying about all the ferrets in the shelters.
Every shelter I have had contact with is very full, or closed to new
arrivals.  I live in the Greater Cleveland area, and our only shelter
is over full and has no more room for arrivals.  There is no place else
for these ferrets to go, but the need for homes continues to increase.
We need to work together for an answer to this problem.  The shelters
provide a wonderful band-aid, but the solution is reducing the number
of unwanted ferrets in the first place.
 
The problem is much larger than one breeder.  I think the answer is
with the pet stores and with education.  They are profiting by selling
animals to people without any knowledge of how to care for them.  They
sit in fish tanks next to the hamsters, and people think they are buying
a larger hamster.  Then when the cage starts to smell, or the ferrets
start to misbehave because they are going crazy in a cage all the time,
or they get sick from poor care, the family dumps them or takes them to a
shelter.  The shelters are all getting full and the ferrets are spending
half of their lives living in shelter cages, because no one wants an
older ferret, or a ferret with a health problem.
 
In my area there are many pet stores that sell baby ferrets.  Most
receive a new shipment every week.  There is an amazing number of baby
ferrets being sold to people who may not know how to care for them.  The
ferrets are sold without education, and in many cases the customers are
not aware of the option of going to a shelter.
 
I believe that we need to put serious pressure on the pet stores to stop
selling baby ferrets and offer pet adoptions instead.  The breeders will
only breed what they can sell, so if the stores are not selling them,
then the breeders will be forced to breed less.  I read about campaigns
that convinced PetCo to stop selling birds.  We need to educate the
public, and put our resources together to do the same for ferrets.
 
I realize that the pet stores are in it for the money, but they can
still profit on the supplies and the food, and will benefit from the
goodwill they can potentially generate.  To begin with stop buying
supplies from stores that sell ferrets, and let people know why.  We
need to band together and raise a big stink if anything is going to
change.  All the shelters in the world are not going to solve the
problem, if the stores keep making money selling babies.
 
Any thoughts?
 
Julianne Gentile
[Posted in FML issue 5304]