Sometimes it's better they give up the ferrets. People can be very
uneducated - if they're the only person in the house, then the ferrets
often get neglected. The worst case I ever saw was when a pregnant
girl's roomate had ferrets in the living room. She said the roommate
was never home, and put them in the roommates room because she was
afraid of getting sick from them. Meanwhile her and the roommate when
to the animal shelter and got a puppy! The puppy ate the ferrets food.
No one got more food, or gave them water for 3 weeks. One was so
dehydrated, she did not respond to fluids and died of organ failure
three or four days after I got her. The other one did survive but
needed physical therapy for months. Charges were brought against both
people for animal cruelty after fighting with the animal control who
initially did not want to comply ("they're just ferrets"). After lots
of crying and hating the world for not caring, I called the DA and they
told me to drop a name with the person who ran the shelter and the
officer who originally ignored me came out to investigate, took all my
evidence (pictures of the apartment, cage, empty food, the ferrets vet
records, the body, video of the paralyzed one who survived, voicemail
of the girl who admitted no one fed them or took care of them for about
3 weeks). It was the first ferret animal cruelty case with ferrets in
that county.

Isn't it amazing how ignorant people can be??? Even though they went
and got a puppy from the shelter, where they easily could have handed
over these two ferrets.....ugh. Even the judge was like, why not let
them go outside, "don't they eat rabbits"? I didn't argue with him, as
I wanted him to approve my case (this was the initial phase). I just
nodded and he approved it LOL. I mean, what is wrong with people? So
sometimes, pregnant women (or anyone who is giving them up) are just
not in the mindset to take care of pets anyway, and often pregnancy is
the main excuse that gets tossed around because it's easy. Who is going
to argue with a woman protecting her baby? Let's face it - if a ferret
is in a home where the woman is thinking of getting rid of them because
her doctor told her so, and she doesn't bother to do any homework on it
or just take precautions, they likely need a better home anyway.

L

[Posted in FML 6969]