Anyone in the Jacksonville/Jax Beach area: There is a private pet store in South Beach Plaza that repeated neglects ferrets. One that "had nothing wrong with it" was found to have permanent neurological damage, probably from being dropped. So that's why the little guy has very weak back legs!!! My daughter and I found a tiny DEW there Thursday. The tube to the water bottle was at least 10" off the cage floor. There was a water bowl, but it was as dry as a desert. The store opened at 10AM and this was only around noon!! The poor baby could hardly stand she was so dehydrated, and poop was crusted all over her bottome. When the owner saw that we knew she was sick he whisked her to the back room first chance he got and refused to sell her to us, even though we told him she needed a vet IMMEDIATELY!! To make a long story short he has still not allowed me to see her, though he did allow a friend to see her when she showed up with the cops. She was definetely feeling better but still had not been seen by a vet!! A promise was made that she would go the the vet first thing Saturday morning. Oops! Then he couldn't take her because his vet wasn't open on Saturday. He uses one of those Total Pet Complexes, and I know for fact they don't have a qualified ferret vet at this one and they are open 7 days a week! I am permanently banned from this jerks store because I talked loud enough for all of his customers to hear how he neglected his animals and, contrary to what he said, sells sick ones!!! The funny thing is that one of the things I told him was that I was going straight to the police dept.and file neglect and abuse charges. I had NO IDEA that my friend would show up less than 2 hours later with the cops!! I would have loved to have seen his fat, lying face!! He doesn't know that he is going to be watched not just by me, but by lots of concerned people. The bad thing is that he is getting ready to open a second store across town on Roosevelt. I don't know if I'm allowed to tell this, if not I'm sure it will be deleted, but the store is Pet Emporium. [Posted in FML issue 3718]