The Ferrets of Pet Pals/*Shelters That Adopt & Rescue
Rescue & Adoption Service/STAR* Ferrets
7402 Joseph Court/P.O Box 1714
Annandale, VA  22003/Springfield, VA 22151-0714
703-354-5073
 
Paul Irwin, HSUS
2100 L. Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-452-1100
fax 202-778-6132
         June 23, 1995
Dear Mr. Irwin,
 
I'm in a quandary.  It appears that you feel a form letter to all the people
contacting you and the HSUS about ferrets is perfectly acceptable.  With
this, you avoid direct questions and answers,  getting involved and educating
yourself and the HSUS, and insult directors of national ferret associations.
You would never send a form letter to the AHA or the ASPCA and their
constituents, would you?
 
So, I'm going to start all over again.  This time, however, I'm expecting a
personal letter in response to ALL my questions and concerns, and I'll make
it easy on you by e-mailing a copy to you so you will have it all ready, nice
and neat, on your computer.
 
Let's start with the position statement on ferrets, revised October 1992:
 
Rabies - Your policy statement is in error - to quote a letter from the
Commonwealth of Virginia Health Department, dated April 3, 1995, "Ferrets, or
any other animals that bite or otherwise expose a human to a potential rabies
threat, must be evaluated on a case by case basis by the Health Department."
(enclosed)
 
Biting - why not state "The HSUS strongly recommends that children,
particularly infants, never be left unsupervised with ANY ANIMAL."  Don't
just pick on the ferret - your Postal campaign brought to the attention of
Ohio residents the following statement in a June 13, 1995 article in the
Columbus Dispatch, "About 1,300 bites a year were reported in Columbus the
last two to three years,...  Officials at Children's Hospital said 52
youngsters were admitted for dog bites in 1993 and 1994.  Fifty percent of
the patients were ages 2 to 4."
 
Doing some quick math, 400 ferret bites since 1978 equals 25 bites per year
NATIONALLY.  Compared with one city in Ohio having 1,300 bites from dogs in
one year, and your own estimates of more than 2 million dog bites reported
annually nation wide, what are you afraid of in ferrets?  I'd like to see the
HSUS position statement on dogs and your mentioning their bite records.
 
Behavior - domestic ferrets are NOT nocturnal.  That distinction belongs  to
their cousin, the Black-footed ferret.
 
Summary - so, what does the HSUS recommend as a suitable pet?  There are
more ferret owners in the US than there are HSUS constituents.  Don't you
think we know something?  Ferrets have never transmitted rabies to a human,
they have a very low bite incident ratio, and they are hypoallergenic,
litterbox trainable, clean and cute.
 
Mr. Irwin, you really need to come out to my home and visit with ferrets
first hand.  Your statement that, "we strongly believe that responsible
ferret caretakers, who know firsthand the challenges of caring for ferrets,
should recognize that widespread promotion of the ferret will surely result
in increased animal neglect and cruelty to ferrets." makes caretakers like
myself sound like we rescue ferrets out of necessity, rather than the joy it
brings.  On the contrary, ferrets are rarely neglected or tormented (except
when used as laboratory animals) and if they are not promoted as pets, then
veterinarians will not take training necessary to learn how to care for our
ferrets, animal shelters will continue to euthanize them instead of releasing
them for adoption, and pet shops will sell them as if they were a rodent.
Please see the enclosed blue flyer about ferrets in the shelter system.
 
Can't you see that ferrets are different animals, and though they have been
around longer than the house cat, they have different diet structures, little
understood medical problems and very little research done to learn things
like the shedding period, USDA approved vaccines to prevent diseases, etc.
 
I realize the HSUS and other animal associations don't want or need another
critter in the shelter system.  Ferrets are not really a problem there and
more than likely won't be in the future, as we have a really nice network set
up to deal with homeless ferrets.
 
Ferrets are no longer a fad animal - they are here, as pets, and popular.
Whether you lowball their figures at 3-5 million or over compensate at 8-10
million, there are still millions of people owning ferrets and millions more
who want to own ferrets.  These people need to be educated, and by putting
out policy statements that lean the reader (animal shelters and animal
control groups, not the private citizen) towards thinking the ferret is hard
to keep, bites a lot, is difficult to control and contain, you are not being
humane, you are being bias.
 
Come out and visit the ferrets.  Watch them interact with my cats.  I can
even arrange to have children present if you would like.  Or bring a child or
two of your own.  My ferrets have all had their rabies shots, and as you may
not know, no properly inoculated ferret has ever tested positive for rabies.
I'm not trying to sell you on ferrets; I don't want you to have one as a  pet
unless you've done some research, which you obviously haven't.  But I do want
you to experience them first hand.  These are average animals, in standard
housing - I just have a lot of them!
 
The other item I'm asking for is a copy of the file that Rachel Lamb
mentioned on the "This Morning" show.  I am still waiting to hear if a copy
will be sent, and when.  If it is too time consuming to duplicate, I will be
happy to take a day off from work and come to the HSUS to hand copy it myself
and reimburse you for the paper.
 
    Looking forward to hearing personally from you,
 
 
       Pamela T. Grant
       Director
[Posted in FML issue 1235]