>The bigger stores are the way they are because people would rather say no >to buying from them then saying yes and educating them. Please don't let >our ferret buddies suffer any more then they have to. Get them homes >quickly instead of letting them sit there in that fish tank or bird area >suffering. Please. I realize that as the new owner of 2 four-month-olds you are just beginning to enjoy the happiness that ferrets bring. However, you have not yet experienced the "other end" of the spectrum. Let me share a few of my own experiences and maybe you'll understand why there is no way I would EVER buy another pet-store ferret: I just lost Nikita at age 5. Nikki spent the last year of her life battling double-adrenal disease and underlying insulinoma, which eventually killed her. For the last year of her life she was plagued with itchy skin from adrenal disease, loss of energy and appetite, and weight loss, and when the insulinoma hit she started having painful seizures. Her last few weeks were full of pain. I loved Nikita and wish we had more time with her - after all, when I was researching ferrets, everything I read assured me that ferrets can expect to enjoy an 8-10 year lifespan. The literature neglected to mention that does not apply to mass-produced pet store babies. Boomer is only 4-1/2 years old and suffering from his second bout with adrenal disease. His adrenal disease has also given him a year of urinary problems that have caused him pain, and he has been catheterized three times. At 4-1/2 years old he looks like an elderly, frail ferret. He faces another surgery if Lupron shots do not get his aggression and swollen prostate under control. My vet is not optimistic that he will live much beyond 5 even with more surgery. Out of my 6 pet store ferrets, one is deceased at 5 years, killed by double-adrenal and insulinoma. Another is 4-1/2 and in a slow decline. A third just passed his 5th birthday. He is loaded with various tumors and it is just a matter of time. A fourth had one surgery at age 4, and now he is showing signs of insulinoma. In the last 2 years, I have spent well over $2,500 in vet bills as my pet store ferrets hit the "advanced" ages of 4-5 years. It is no coincidence that all of my pet-store ferrets are having such short, pain-filled lives; I am not just some unlucky person that happened to pick disease-prone ferrets from an otherwise healthy population! Ferrets are mass-produced, trucked and shipped far too young to pet stores who do not always know how to take care of them. Education is fine, but you will need to commit an AWFUL lot of time to educating pet store employees. Turnover, especially in the larger chains, is ridiculously high, not unlike a fast-food chain or a discount store. You will need to go in every month and re-educate the new employees, and also the new managers, as they also are replaced very quickly. Not all stores appreciate it, either. Not all managers are even open to letting you do this. Even if you educate the employees, the baby ferrets are still being purchased by consumers who often have no clue how to care for them, and within a year or two will dump them at a shelter. Believe me, shelters will not appreciate a cry for everyone to go out and start scooping up pet store ferrets. They know where the majority of them end up! It is very short-sighted to urge people to buy and rescue pet store ferrets. Those babies are replaced by more babies. THOSE babies are instantly replaced. And if you've ever studied supply and demand, you know that greater demand increases production, at any cost (that's one reason the US has ended up with our lovely supply of contaminated meat). Many people (myself included) blame the poor condition of pet-store ferrets on increased demand. To meet demand, large-scale ferret breeders that supply pet stores are cutting corners anywhere they can (spaying and neutering too young, shipping too young, not investing enough time in weeding out poor breeding stock). The proposal that people start buying them to "save" them would only increase this problem, not to mention fill up the shelters even more! I know what it's like to be a new ferret mom and feel like you don't want to see any fuzzies languishing in pet stores. But take a moment and think about the place your ferrets came from, and realize that there is an endless supply...and a company behind it that does not really care that it compromises ferrets' long-term health when it increases production. You'll love your fuzzies all their lives, but you'll lose your naivete once you start shelling out big bucks for the vet bills. To anyone considering buying more pet store babies, I have only one thing to say: Call your shelter!!! ADOPT! ADOPT! ADOPT!!!!! -Heather W. in Massachusetts Loving my pet store babies, but watching their days slip away. Loving Nikita at the Bridge, always. Wish you'd had more than half a life, little girl. [Posted in FML issue 3763]