This is for the New Orleans Ferret rescue as well as every other
frazzled ferret shelter still trying to find decent adoptors...

Absolutely never mind the occasional "gimme a free ferret" ploys from
the less considerate folks "out there". You Must charge a fee for
several very good reasons...first and foremost to discourage those
looking for cheap or free pets to (a) abuse outright(b) use as deep-sea
fishing bait (c) re-sell to other potential abusers.

These three reasons are among the forefront of why the Humans Society
of the United States advises against giving away "free" pets of any
sort, and Petfinder (dot) com agrees with this to the extent that
anyone putting up any sort of pet for adoption is required to post a
fee .

When Wes and I used to adopt ferrets our fees were mostly set at $75.00
for one, $125 for a bonded pair and $150 for three or more who were to
stay together. There were times when we merely suspected that potential
adoptors were lying and we'd re-make our fees to be thrice as much to
test the liars' sincerity in really, really wanting to love and take
care of the pet (once it was a rabbit, whose "unexpectedly" high fee
discouraged the "adoptor" and we LATER found out that the so-called
adoptor would have eaten the fat, "juicy" rabbit.

Thus, also for ferrets, STICK TO YOUR GUNS on your adoption fees! It's
for the safety and well-being of your FREINDS, the ferrets!

Stay with the fee you've set, don't let a potential abuser brow beat
you down!

Susie Lee ...our No-kill shelter's history in pictures is here....
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html

[Posted in FML 6890]