I have received and carefully considered the private and public messages urging
me to recant or apologize for remarks I made in FML 745 respecting the moral
obligation of ferret owners to either provide proper care for their ferrets or
turn them over to someone, such as a shelter, who is better able to do so. In
particular, Chris Lewis's posting in FML 753. Others have indicated support for
my position.
 
Point one: I gave fair notice in the original posting (745) that the subject
might be controversial:
 
>WARNING: The following comments... will doubtless be offensive to some readers.
 
The posting did not just slip Chris's notice; he decided, after presumably due
consideration, to allow the posting to be made, as clearly indicated by his
aside in FML 751:
 
>[I should point out that I almost decided to block Davis' message...]
 
If Chris felt the topic was too inflammatory or the message too offensive to
some members, he could and should have spared their feelings by blocking the
message. It is somewhat inconsistent for him to excoriate me after the fact --
">I don't want to let this pass for normal behaviour on the FML<" -- for
exposing FMLers to language he himself allowed to be posted.
 
Point two: If you reread the posting in 745, you will see I never raised the
issue of euthanasia.  Those who accuse me of insensitively berating anyone for
having been forced to resort to it are interpeting it post hoc, in light of
other and later postings. What I did raise was the issue of getting timely care
when a ferret is ailing, and the need to take action when you find you're in
over your head.  In that connection, I have found that most people who run
ferret rescues are devoted enough to ferret welfare to take in those who need
medical attention and see that they get it, even if adoption fees don't come
close to covering the expenses.
 
Point three: Since the euthanasia issue has been raised by others, however, and
its use endorsed in this forum, I would like to say something on the subject.
Simply put, I believe that it is _always_ a moral failure to end a ferret's life
for reasons other than its own welfare, unless any other option causes worse
suffering to human beings.  I do not dispute your right to disagree with me But
I would hope you will tolerate my right to express that view even so.  In the
not too distant past, I recall, most FMLers were broad-minded enough to
tolerate, even welcome dialogue with those who make their living using ferrets
as lab animals and slaughtering them for sometimes fairly unimportant research
projects.
 
Point four: No one is perfect.  Sometimes we may make the wrong decision about
euthanasia, and other times we may never know if we did the right thing.  We can
know, however, that our moral position is tenuous if we have been forced to make
the decision on purely financial grounds.  That is not cause for condemnation;
it is cause to learn from the experience and try to avoid in future being forced
by life to do something we may later feel guilt about.  At the same time, the
decision should not be _about_ our feelings; the decision is _about_ the life of
a pet.
 
I have myself held a tormented, hopelessly stricken ferret in my arms while the
vet put him down. I know what an agonizing experience it is.  There have also
been times, during the course of a long and ultimately losing battle with
insulinoma, when I wondered how much longer I could support the brutal
veterinary bills. In our family we have at various times had to scrub family
vacations, delay purchases, even take out loans to continue treatment.  But we
have never pulled the plug in a case where the ferret--even one we had taken in
as a rescue--was either still saveable or still able, with treatment, to have a
minimally acceptable quality of life.
 
Point five: The question we ought to ask ourselves first when this becomes a
personal issue in our life is not "Can I afford it?" but "What would I have to
give up to afford it?" If the answer is a new television, a new car, that is one
thing; if the answer is my child's college education, that is something else.
The standard I apply is whether I am so overwhelmed by the bills that I would be
forced to pull the plug if it was a human child.
 
That may strike some people as foolish. So be it.  But when you take a "rescue"
in, they DO call it "adoption".  True, the law calls it "purchase" if you buy a
ferret in a pet store. But I don't treat it as a purchase. I am rather welcoming
a little soul into my home, a soul totally dependent upon my care. For better or
for worse.  Any other approach to the matter amounts to treating pets as
disposables.
 
Last point: I regret any suffering my words on these subjects may have caused.
But I cannot in good conscience apologize for having said them.
 
--Howard Davis
 
[Posted in FML issue 0757]