The earth shook, the mountain rose and lo, on that day, William Killian was
known to enscribe:
 
>Well okay.  I certainly did not send email to Sandi as she has chosen not
>to read anything that might differ in opinion - despite her choosing to
>flame others.
 
Lets see now.  If William hasn't heard of it can't happen.  If William
hasn't read all of the pine/cedar studies they don't exist.  If William
hasn't ordained it so, it just ain't.  All of the "original" pine/cedar
studies indicating toxins were deadly to rats and mice, were done in 1967.
The later report on cancer in humans working in wood mills around pine
dust, was done in early 1990's, or around that time.  Now lets see, ferrets
can catch and pass on our colds and influenza but only large size humans
would be affected by pine/cedar.  OK William, if you say so.
 
I have an auto-bounce feature on my e-mail to get rid of junk mail from
William, but he's in a class by himself.  Up until I read his missive I
though I was reading differing opinions, but I guess William knows what I
do.  Gee Willy are you sitting on my shoulder as I sit here reading and
writing about rabbits, rodents and ferrets?  (((shudder)))   Williams
statement that I "chose not to read differing opinions" sort of sums up
everything he says, he's a mind reader along with all of his other talents.
Good gravy, he's in my mind!  He is the all seeing, all knowing..... But
for others who may be more realistic, what you read are my opinions and
they most certainly do differ from many other opinions.  William considers
my posts "flames" because I have strong opinions and convictions?  And the
lord spoke.....
 
>I have read what Sandi has said numerous times and think she is
>disingenous.  PetCo would sell or not sell rabbits for its own reasons.
>The House Rabbit Society did not dictate terms to PetCo.  They did not
>come in as a white knight and defeat a great Satan.
 
Sandi is not disingenuous.  William knows not whereof he speaks.  And
yes....as a matter of FACT the HRS as a community across the US gathered
together with other rabbit rescue organizations, with animal shelters who
euthanize rabbits and with many individuals....and we did discuss with
Petco why it was not in their best interest to sell rabbits.  We came
charging in with 10's of thousands of lucky rabbits feet and Petco (hmmm,
no I wouldn't refer to them as satan, but there are others, not quite
human, who I feel would fit that description) realized that as a large
group of people who also lived with cats, dogs and other critters we could
have a huge impact on their success (read profit) around the country.  (I
love long sentences!) At the same time that we were "discussing" things
with Petco (didn't go too well at first), we also organized "information
lines" in front of Petco stores around the country, so that they would see
that our presence was not just limited to writing letters.  So perhaps
William is right after all (scary) in that "it was based on the corporation
actually caring." ABOUT THEIR PROFITS!
 
The money that Petco offered and still offers is from their "Buy a bunny
for a dollar" easter promotion.  They wanted to pass along whatever funds
came in from that *advertising* campaign and the first year they actually
used the HRS name in their advertising (this was not a good business
decision, as they did not have permission to use our good name.) The money
they "donate" was not and does not come from their own budgeted funds!  It
makes a lot of sense William, but only if you choose to get all of the
information.
 
By the way, for all who may be interested, you will now see in small print
that the "donations" to Petco for their easter campaign goes to animal
shelters to help "all" animals.  The donations do not (necessarily) go to
rabbit rescue organizations.  So...this easter money could be yours..
perhaps if you put long ears on your ferrets????  It's up to the individual
stores within each Petco district as to which 501(3)c organization gets the
money.  So start sucking up now!  Easter's only a year away!
 
It's obvious that the ferret community does not see the situation with
Petco in the same light as the rabbit community did.  And so Petco will
continue to sell ferrets with the ferret communities blessing.  It's simply
a matter of profit.  And this will be my last post on this topic during
this "debate".
 
Sandi
Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House
Seattle, WA
[Posted in FML issue 2678]