Shelters and pictures

I think before I would leave my ferret at a shelter that I would have
to know what it looked like for several reasons. I could find I was
dying and need to give up one of the babies. Life happens.

I thank Stacy for her strong views. But showing the interior of a
shelter does NOT give away its address. I DO like the idea of only
giving a PO Box number. That makes sense, so people do not leave
animals on your doorstep, or just come whenever. But pictures of how
clean your shelter is, how the play area looks, how roomy any cages
are would be really important to me.

Secondly, having been around for many years, and loving Animal
Planet...I see the number of people that call themselves shelters or
breeders. The actual conditions are horrific. The Utah rescue showed us
how terrible conditions could be at a place that was called a shelter.
This lady had a friend who also did not see or smell the drastic
conditions that made it hard for the police to stay in the condo. She
defended the hoarder.

Going on past reputation is not a safe gaurd. There was just a ferret
shelter mom last year, I believe, who did not let people know she had
fallen on hard times for some while. People walking into the shelter
that was once well cared for? They saw that conditions were now
deplorable.

I do not think that there are any better safe gaurds than to see the
shelter for yourself. But a fairly current web site showing the main
room and isolation room for the ferrets goes a long way at instilling
trust.

In a time when shelters are searching for donations, showing your
facility online goes a long way in my book. I have donated to almost
every rescue for years where I can see pics of the facility. Even after
a terrible flood...I could see with my own eyes that this one ferret
shelter was run by a caring shelter mom with a once terrific shelter.
I donated even though she was on the flood plain of flood plains.

In contrast, there was a shelter run out of an uninsulated garage in
a state with extremes in temps. I asked. There was no heat or air
provided. I was appauled. I actually stopped reading anything to do
with ferrets for a long time.

The shelters I donate to now are ones I have seen online with a fairly
current web page. Or I have driven to see them. For me, my days of
donating to shelters that could be run out of an uninsulated garage
in an area with extremes in weather with no heat or air are over.

But yes...that is just me. It is just my opinion after the culmination
of years of experiences. Seeing ferret near frozen kept in the dark of
a garage shivering off any protein and body fat..

SOO close to death. Blinded for days by any light. I don't know how to
keep the anger and disgust out for the shelter in that garage..

MARY....Thank you for writing! I wrote you a letter also. But I do not
know if you will get it.

Lisette

[Posted in FML 6685]