VERY WELL said! 

We are just happy that 700+ ferrets are safe. Let us hope this serves
as a lesson to even just a few poeple. ALL breeding facilities (like
shelters) need a retirement plan. This is the third such rescue FACT
has been involved in during our almost 17 years of service to ferrets
and their owners. And I know that is less than many other shelters have
had to deal with over the years! (BTW, yes, FACT DOES have a shelter
retirement/shut down plan that includes doing our best to finance the
care for any remaining ferrets adequately).

It's so easy to "Monday morning quarterback" what, when, where, and
how .... but let us never forget the WHY and WHO that have benefited
here - the ferrets.

Perhaps the approach between MFRAN and Lori's inadvertently created a
"good cop - bad cop" scenario that helped cause the surrender. Maybe it
delayed it. Maybe neither. Short of alternate universes none of us will
ever know.

I respectfully urge people to:

a) stop bad-mouthing everyone for anything they did or didn't do -
none of us know precisely how we would act in similar circumstances.
Everyone did what they did to try to help not harm the ferrets!

b) allow D. McKay to retire gracefully. While I have never agreed with
his style of animal husbandry (which I feel was locked in an antiquated
time capsule of what was once considered normal), no one is in the
ferret breeding business for as many years as he was if he hated
ferrets! The truly *avaricious* would have not surrendered the ferrets.
Further they would more than likely have long ago switched to breeding
other, more current "stylish" animals to make a buck off of.

c) encourage D. McKay to drop his suit against MFRAN and any others. It
will serve no purpose at this point - I question where there is harm
when he is no longer in business. But I'm no lawyer. Let the funds that
would be spent help rehome and care for the ferrets he bred that need
to be rehomed. It serves no purpose to feed lawyers and the court
system.

d) I forget who messaged it - but please take to heart and treat all
ferrets waiting for a home as a shelter or rescue ferret - no matter
where they came from! They are all their own unique individuals under
the fluffy fur and bone structure. I learned that lesson very well when
2 exceptionally bred, Best of Show ferrets were turned into FACT's
shelter barely a year after they received their Titles.

e) we all have biases - I have mine. I had a house cat who lived to
be 23 years old eating Purina Cat Chow all her life and only having
visited a vet when she was neutered at 6 months of age. I met a man
last year who had two early neuter Marshall Farms ferrets purchased as
kits who died at 11 and 12 years old - he had no reason to lie as we
were merely chatting and he's not part of any ferret mafia! (LOL)....
so while I understand the desire for "health" and "longevity" mother
nature doesn't - thankfully - work in black and white!

Ann Gruden
Ferret Association of CT, Inc.

[Posted in FML 5753]