>From:    Skyla Fay <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Pepto/Kao/etc and Shelterer Burnout
>Shelterers do something I'm afraid to do: they deal on a daily basis with
>the ugly way human beings treat other creatures, they see the results of
>neglect, abuse, and just plain callousness.
 
Some people seem to forget - we run a shelter.  We've actually run our
shelter just a bit longer than Alicia has run hers although she was
involved with the Bossarts shelter before that.  We do not see this ugly
side of people as often as others do for some reason.  Perhaps we are
lucky but but it might be that although abuse does happen most turn ins to
shelters are NOT abuse cases.  They may well be on the neglected side (and
no neglect is not the same as abuse) but the owners understand that so they
are trying to do better by their charges BY turning them over to a shelter.
I don't see most people as horrible and bad.  I am in no way misanthropic
enough to think animals are better than people - they aren't.  But they
also aren't worse.  They are just different.
 
>From:    Sukie Crandall <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: data, vaccine reactions, Killian post, beer
 
Of course you read it the way it was meant.  I will admit that several
folks did misread what I wrote so it wasn't worded in the best way.
Sorry to those that got confused.
 
>From:    "marie i. schatz" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Lissette's post/misc comments
>It took me about 3 months on the list (its been what 3 yrs?) to realize
>only his experience and opinion count and I haven't read him since.
 
Its a shame you've closed your mind.  I think you meant that I only
consider my opinion and experince important.  If so you really do not
understand me at all.  Its a pity.
 
>I wish I had copied the post - but someone did mention that shelter turn
>in's were rising and asked how much longer could non kill shelters go on.
 
Ferrets are on the increase while dogs and cats are on the decrease.  This
is as should be expected as ferrets popularity increases and as spay and
neuter programs for dogs and cats are succeeding.  If you understand this
then the next bit you state is a bit off.  Also if you understand this you
will also be able to grasp that the days of public shelters not taking in
ferrets may be ending in the not too distant future.  As the population of
the largest two portions of their population decrease openings for other
species will increase.  It is foreseeable that the days of mass
euthanizations are numbered.  In the past couple decades the dog and cat
turn ins at shelters have fallen incredibly.
 
I recommend that people who truly care about these topics consider reading
the web pages or even subscribe to Animal People.
 
   http://www.animalpepl.org/
 
In particular read...
   http://www.animalpepl.org/93/5/editorial1.html
   http://www.animalpepl.org/95/7/editorial.html
 
>The ferret community is at a fulcrum point in its evolution.  An enviable
>point where we could actually stop the progress toward where the cat and
>dog
 
Not based on actual statistics.  And not based on actual medical facts.
I'll quote Animal People (the second specific link above)
 
    All of this signifies that no-kill animal control is almost here.  It
    has already come to San Francisco, where no healthy dog or cat has
    been euthanized since March 1994.  Per capita shelter intakes and
    euthanasias in New York City, St. Louis, San Diego, and the states
    of Connecticut and Washington are all now at the point where the sort
    of determined neutering and adoption push San Francisco SPCA president
    Richard Avanzino mounted a decade ago could perhaps bring them to zero
    non-medically-essential euthanasias by the turn of the century.
 
No one has published figures for the neuter rate of pet ferrets but its
gonna definitely be high.  95% or more perhaps.  Dogs and cats are gaining
on ferrets rather than the other way around.  Owned dogs in '95 were about
65% and owned cats were about 85%.
 
>From:    Robynn McCarthy <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: zen on ferret popularity - its a GOOD thing...
>I'm really curious where you got the idea that I thought ferrets were bad
>pets.
 
You said...
>>How much truth do you tell the public while you're educating,
>>without making ferrets sound like bad pets.
 
If you think telling too much truth makes ferrets sound like bad pets that
sounds like you think ferrets are bad pets.  While I think that the more
truth you tell about ferrets, the more they sound like great pets.  If you
genuinely think ferrets are great pets why would you be afraid to tell
everything?
 
>You weren't there to witness the situation, to the best of my
>knowledge, or when our club attorney had to deal with the matter.
 
I didn't comment on that situation in specific.  Just the general comment
that if you tell the truth and can prove it you have little to worry about
a lawsuit.  But telling the truth is cold statistics and facts without
colorful adjectives.  I've run out of room in this post and had to omit my
example this time around.  To be defamation the spoken or written word must
be false.
 
-bill
[Posted in FML issue 2690]