I spent my Good Friday evening at a not so good animal auction near
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  We had heard that there were often 20-40
ferrets auctioned off at this particular event which is held every
Thanksgiving and Easter weekend.
 
My words will definitely not be able to describe the things I saw & heard.
I have traveled throughout SE Asia & have seen similar circumstances but I
never thought, naively perhaps, that it happened so close to home.
 
Ferrets were transported and auctioned off in 4 liter pails with a wood
cover and 3" square hole cut out of the wood for air.  The hole was covered
with chicken wire which was secured (somewhat) down by nails.  Inside the
pail, no water, food or blankets were to be found - only a bed of straw.
They were kept this way for the approx.  2-3 hour drive to the auction,
throughout the auction and some until the next day - at least.  When at
the breeder's facility they are not caged, but roam free inside a heated
horse trailer - which I am guessing is lined with straw, although I am not
positive on this one.  The ferrets themselves appeared to be handled a fair
bit and I was extremely impressed with their temperaments.  Their ears and
teeth looked good but their coats were awful.  I have seen ferrets yellow
from the food they have eaten but I have NEVER seen sables *this* yellow.
The breeder fed them Nutrience kitten food but I am thinking it may be the
dog treats they are fed every day that may be contributing to this color.
Unfortunately, all but 2 of the ferrets (which were not from this breeder)
were intact.  They were auctioned off for about $25-$40 (Canadian).
 
About 25% of the people that purchased the approx. 9 ferrets available
also seemed thankful that we provided them with information because they
had just purchased their first ferret & knew nothing about them.  A few
others had ferrets at home & knew about some care required while other
people we met did not purchase ferrets at the auction but had ferrets at
home.  One lady bought a male because her female was in heat at the moment.
 
There is a good point to this story.  The breeder was extremely responsive
to our introduction and said she had been looking for a ferret association
around the area.  She took our literature and seemed fairly open to the
idea of speaking with us in the future.  In the end, we introduced
ourselves to a fair number of ferret owners from rural Alberta.
 
Unfortunately, however, this is only one of the animal auctions in the
area.  Unfortunately, we were not able to make it back to help the ferrets
that would be auctioned off today.  Unfortunately, the ferrets were treated
better than most of the other animals there.  Cotton eared tamarans,
degus, sugar gliders, rodents, hedgehogs, kittens and hundreds of "Easter
bunnies", some just old enough to be weaned and wrapped up in a nice
little Easter basket.  Birds and rabbits of all sorts stuffed into cramped
cardboard boxes with wire covering one side cut out for air, the boxes not
even big enough to turn around in - peacocks, ducks, pheasants, pigeons,
chickens, turkeys and some I have never even seen before.  All of them had
to spend the night in these cages, shivering in the cold, and some with
apparent infections.  The ferrets were actually lucky...
 
Shelby Kimura
Vice President of Calgary Operations
Alberta Ferret Society
www.albertaferretsociety.com
[Posted in FML issue 3388]