Dear folks.
 
I am not one to flame, esp.  on a list such as this, and I certainly don't
handle flaming well, whether it be to myself directly, or to someone else
but I think this is one of those cases when I cannot be silent.  I will take
the risk.  Remember, this is my opinion and like everyone else, I am
entitled to give it.  Why can we not just agree to disagree and not clobber
each other over the head.  It is the flaming that makes me angry, not the
fact that people disagree.  Everyone is different, has different opinions
and beliefs, and reasons why we think and feel the way we do.  It doesn't
mean you are any better (or worse for that matter) than me and I am no
better than you.  Enough said.
 
This reply is regarding the CA gentleman that took his ferret in public.  I
am sorry that I don't have the details at hand.  I have been off line for a
few days, with the weekend and our computer at home being down and I don't
have all of the details handy, etc.  Anyways, Misty wrote a post disagreeing
with this gentleman and I must say that I agree with her.  When I read what
this man did I was shocked.  How could he do that knowing that his ferret
could be seized and even killed.  What would that have accomplished.  Would
it be Kodo revisited?  Was he willing to sacrifice his baby to get a point
across?  Yes things need to be changed but can that not be accomplished
without sacrificing needlessly?  There is enough killing going on without
purposely doing something that you know may result in the death of yet
another one.
 
A few years back my husband and I wanted to set up a shelter for ferrets and
in our research, we found that the Humane Society kills ferrets and doesn't
recommend them as pets.  Our city by-laws also prohibited us to set up a
shelter.  We were very cautious because we knew that if the wrong
authorities found out that we had ferrets (we still have 9), we could stand
to loose all of them.  There is more to this story but it is long so I will
skimp.  We ran an unofficial shelter up until last year and if we found a
fuzzy needing a home, we would still certainly take it in.  We never did all
that we could and we feel so guilty about the ferrets that have likely died,
because they were ferrets but we were never sure how far to push things (we
actually managed to rescue 2 from the Humane Society - another story) before
we were found out, so we stayed underground as it were.  In any case, my
point is, we didn't do everything that I am sure we could have because we
didn't want to risk loosing what we had.  We love them too much to take that
risk.
 
I know that Misty received a lot of vicious flaming and that makes me angry.
She was giving an opinion.  I will likely receive the same but I will tell
you up front, those flames don't deserve to be read let alone responded too,
and I won't do either.  I love this list and it is far too valuable to be
acting like immature little children.  I think Misty deserves an apology
from a lot of people.  Let's keep the list for what it is, a valuable
resource to make life better for our fuzzies, and ourselves.
 
Thanks for listening.
 
Tryntje Miller and her furry crew.
[Posted in FML issue 2121]