>I'm looking around currently for information on who originally founded the
>greyhound adoption program and how they managed to start chapters in
>practically every state across the nation.  My hope is to talk to them about
>how to advertise such a program and how to sell it to the source of the
>animals (racetracks or MF, whoever).  I'd like to find out stats on number
>of greyhounds retired each year, # adopted by these programs, etc.
 
There's one MAJOR difference between the greyhound rescue program and a
proposed ferret rescue program - and thats the pet stores.  Ferrets are a
very common pet store pet - chances are, you can go to at least one pet
store in town (if not practically every pet store in town) and buy a
ferret.  Greyhounds are different - historically they have not been a
popular pet store pet.  Stores that sell dogs tend to go for goldens,
rotties, shepherds - breeds that look especially cute as puppies.
Greyhounds have never been that popular in the pet stores (if you've never
seen a hound puppy, they're awfully gangly - they just don't attract the
impulse buyers the same way as goldens), and thus were not a very popular
breed to begin with.  So greyhound adoption agencies had to get the word out
about what a wonderful dog greyhounds really were - but once they did that,
they were the obvious place to get them from (and in many areas, the ONLY
place).  A ferret adoption agency would have to convince people not only
that ferrets are wonderful pets, but also that there's an advantage to
adopting over buying from a pet store.  And while many people agree in
theory that adopting is a better thing to do, that may not be enough to
overcome the pet store cuteness factor (since ferret kits ARE incredibly
cute, and attract the impulse buyer).  The reality is that the greyhound
adoption agencies didn't have to compete overly much with pet stores,
whereas ferret agencies do.  This doesn't mean they're not a good program to
learn from - they've certainly been phenomenally successful, and would be a
wonderful model in many ways.  But they won't be able to provide an answer
to one of the most serious problems facing the ferret shelters, because they
were lucky enough not to face it to the same extent.
 
-rochelle
[Posted in FML issue 1999]