>I think both you and Sukie would feel different if it was one of your
>ferrets.  Sukie fought so hard to save that last little ferret.  She
>could tell me till she was blue in the face that it was alright... [etc]
 
True enough, but recall that this was NOT what I said.  (I know you know,
but I also know that poor readers get confused often enough reading any
mailing list.) What I said was:
 
1. We do NOT know the entire story, just one side.
 
Did you notice that what Sandi mentioned as being used to euthanize is
not something which is used to actually euthanize?  It is one of the
safest anesthetics.  Perhaps what was encountered was not euthanizia but
a sudden reaction to anesthesia.  Those are rare but they happen.
 
The ferret has also been mentioned as having had severe and long standing
adrenal disease.  Do any of us know if the ferret might have had a sudden
problem arise related to this and not survived an emergency corrective
procedure, perhaps even because the sudden emergency was simply too
serious to survive?  Nope.  We don't.
 
We have one side of the story so we have no idea if such a thing happened
or didn't.  We need both sides if we are to understand.
 
2. That confusion occurred.
 
Even if the above is true this is also true.  Do we know why the
confusion happened?  Were records, or labels, or even placement messed
up?  Was the vet working horrible hours providing charity care and have
that combined with one of the above.
 
Heck, I know that in a rush we once brought a ferret to a hospital in
a carrier which was labeled with the details of a different ferret (in
masking tape on top) but fortunately, we provided enough details that
they spotted it beforehand just about the same time as we did.  We'd
brought the right ferret, actually.  It's just that we'd been in a rush
and hadn't realized which ferret the carrier was still marked for from
a recent surgery.
 
3. That the research is addressing a question which shows up here often --
sometimes several times a month, so don't automatically throw out the
baby with the bathwater.
 
Yes, like you, I do prefer it that someone just admits it when the person
has screwed up on a judgment call, and like you I know that in some
emergencies there is no judgment call which will work but sometimes the
only way to know is to try.
 
Like the rest of us I just don't know what happened.  I am sure it must
be frustrating to Sandi on top of her sadness to not know or understand
what occurred, but until we know the only portion on which we can make a
judgment is that there sure as heck should be better communications
between the two -- with calm talking and lot a listening on each side.
 
I do worry when I read posters describing themselves in "me against the
world" terms such as Sandi's
>However, you are absolutely right that there is a lot more to this than
>was posted.  I didn't previously mention how the entire WFA board of
>directors are involved in this.  They are running an illegal veterinary
>facility at their shelter
especially *IF* in looking back through the archives i find that the same
person has taken that sort of stance over and over again in relation to
multiple sets of people.
 
It seems to me personally *IF* I see that that repeated pattern that
perhaps it is the "me against the world" person who has accidently caused
at least some of the types of confusion and trouble but fails to take
responsibility.  In such a situation -- when it actually happens -- there
is probably a lot a grief which everyone could be spared if the poster
just faced up to having made a mistake.  Mistakes are to for learning but
the only way to do that is to acknowledge them.  I guess it is possible
that a certain person could have terrible things done by many conspiring
groups of people happen to him or her, but when I read that entire groups
of people are implicated in a conspiracy (which is how Sandi's post today
reads I do just what I'll do after after I finish reading today's FML: I
CHECK.  I bring up the FML Archives and I search for past posts from the
person to find out *IF* there have been past allegations of conspiracies
made by the same poster and against whom.  I think I'll try my first
search using "Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House".
 
My take on how to personally weigh things will be influenced by what I
find in past post behavior.  The FML Archives can be found in the header
of any day's FML or by going to
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html .  Go look in the
archives for yourselves before deciding, and even then remember that you
don't have the full picture anymore than any of the rest of us do, so
just think of it as a jigsaw whose picture remains unrecognizable --
allowing only guesses for now.
 
I DO have to say this.  Sandi's comment:
>Cathy Johnson-Delaney's "day job" is doing research on Monkeys at SNBL
>USA.  She is used to killing on a daily basis
makes no sense at al: NONE.  Remember that before the tropical disease i
got in Suriname caused me to have to leave school my plans were to go
into primatology and that I worked with research primates for 5 years.
During that time there were 4 deaths total and 3 were not in the least
related to to the research or care.  In five years total only one death
was *possibly* at all avoidable and that death happened due to problem
during a dominance challenge attack by the monkey who died.
 
Researchers typically go out of their ways to NOT have primates die.
Besides the emotional closeness which develops, they are valuable, and
the relationships needed for safe interactions take time to establish.
The chimps and other animals i worked with -- the chimps most closely --
only had types of research done on them which were also done on us humans
and we had to establish a trusting relationship first which took an
extended time to do.  Sandi's monkey comment makes no sense at all: ZIP,
ZILCH, NADA, NONE.
[Posted in FML issue 4331]