We are a shelter in St. Louis and have worked with Greater Chicago in the
past.  This post is not intended to slander anyone, merely to suggest that
in addition to trolling the FML for volunteers, they need to think about
changing some of the ways that they do things.  Recognizing that all
shelters do things differently, surely it is the goal of all of us to find
good homes for the ferrets.  It is our feeling that the Greater Chicago
Ferret Assn. makes it much too difficult to adopt ferrets.  They are not
particularly visible in the community and the adoption process (from what
we understand) is fairly long and cumbersome.
 
We went up to Chicago to help them with an overflowing shelter for the
first time in 1998.  Much to our surprise, Norm told us that we couldn't
have any of the ferrets that were already in the shelter, because "the
volunteers were too attached to them".  So we spent most of a day waiting
for people to drop off ferrets, which we would take to St. Louis.  Since
then, we have been working with another animal rescue organization (Animal
Welfare League) in Chicago to take their ferrets, since the local ferret
rescue is ALWAYS FULL.  We have probably brought down close to 100 ferrets
from Chicago, in addition to the ones we take in locally.  The volunteer
who works with us at Animal Welfare League also works with other out of
area shelters to help these ferrets.  When we were at the ferret show in
Chicago this year, we talked to one woman who owns ferrets and seemed to be
a very caring and responsible owner, who told us that she had filled out
the adoption application for the Greater Chicago Ferret Association and
sent it in, and no-one had ever gotten back to her about adopting.
 
I'm not saying that they have to change or relax their standards, just that
Greater Chicago needs to think about how they can get more ferrets into new
homes.  Many ferret shelters work with PetSmart to increase awareness of
ferrets, even if they don't actually adopt ferrets out at the stores.  We
have been doing this shelter stuff for 3 1/2 years, and every time we go
out in public, we find ferret owners who have never heard of us, and never
even thought about adopting a ferret.  So my moral of the story would be
"publicity is good!".  Also, working with PetSmart means you can get money
from PetSmart charities.
 
Please address all flames to me and keep them off the FML - let's not make
poor BIG's job any harder.
 
Sara Petersen
President
FURRY (Ferrets Underfoot Running Round You)
http://www.furryferrets.org
[Posted in FML issue 3224]