At 04:00 12/01/01, Danielle Frye wrote:
>So what do you tell someone like me, who has seen 80% of MF ferrets she
>has fostered, rescued or adopted with health problems by the age of three?
>Is it just that I have been someone who manages to end up with all the MF
>ferrets who have terminal illnesses?  I doubt it.
 
Your statistics aren't supported by many others.  If what you say is true,
I suspect you (your shelter) is the victim of people who decide to give up
their ferrets just because they are sick.  There's a lot of that going
around and it isn't confined just to ferret shelters.  I can't even begin
to count the number of reports from shelters who just took in a new
arrival and were scheduling adrenal surgery within the next few days and
needed donations to help.  I think shelter stats on health and mortality
should be very suspect unless we can be assured the phenomenon of dumping
off already ill animals is taken into account in a proper and unbiased
fashion.  I'm afraid what I see in the meantime is a case of those who
believe in UFOs being the ones who see them all the time.  One has to
wonder why this is so.
 
Jim H
[Posted in FML issue 3619]