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From:
Pamela Greene <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 25 Oct 1996 13:05:00 -0400
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I've stayed out of most discussions of this kind before, but here goes,
jumping in with both feet...
 
Okay, I'm not a statistician or a vet, and I don't have data on nearly
enough ferrets, but why should that stop me?  Let's play Just Suppose.  Here
are the assumptions, by no means proven but (I think) reasonable:
 
1.  Suppose that genetics has nothing to do with it; that the rate of
adrenal disease is actually the same for ferrets from any breeder, large or
small, good or not, with the same environment, food, age at alteration, and
so on.  Remember, this hasn't been proven, but it's a game of Just Suppose,
right?
 
2.  Suppose that people who buy ferrets from pet stores or low-quality
breeders, as a whole, know less about ferrets and are less dedicated to the
long-term well-being of their pets than people who buy them from good small
breeders.  Now, before you flame me, notice "as a whole".  Obviously
everyone here cares greatly about their pets, wherever they came from, but
we all know there are lots of people who go into a pet store and buy a
ferret on impulse, without knowing what they're getting themselves into.
That just doesn't happen at a good breeder, since the breeder makes sure the
new "parent" is informed and responsible; and it takes a certain amount of
dedication and effort to find a good breeder in the first place.
 
3.  People who don't know much about ferrets are often surprised, possibly
disappointed, at how much work they are to care for.
 
4.  This is the crucial one: people who are already disappointed at how much
trouble their ferrets are, or who didn't know what diseases to expect to
encounter over the years, or who spent less time and trouble acquiring the
ferret in the first place, are more likely to turn the ferret over to a
shelter when it gets sick.  Again, a controversial statement, but I know at
our local shelter, a surprising number of the incoming ferrets are sick.
 
5.  Conclusion, if we accept or somehow prove all these assumptions:
Shelters will see a higher rate of adrenal disease (and probably every other
externally obvious disease as well) among ferrets from MF and low-quality
breeders than they see in their other ferrets, even though (according to
assumption 1) the rate in the general population is the same for both
groups.
 
So -- and I think this was obvious from the start -- just polling shelters
doesn't get you a good sample of ferrets for a study of this question, since
the ferrets in shelters may be biased toward both poor health and MF origin
-separately-.  You need a good control, which the shelters can't provide.
 
--
- Pam Greene
Ferret Central <http://www.optics.rochester.edu:8080/users/pgreene/>
            or send INDEX FERRET in email to <[log in to unmask]>
[Posted in FML issue 1733]

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