I wanted to say a few things here. But before I do, I need to say that I highly, highly respect Barb Clay and all she has given to these animals over the years. I respect her opinions and beliefs. I have learned much for him. Her contribution to her local community and to mass rescues is immeasurable. But I am also irritated. Let me explain why. Ardith is a dear, dear friend of mine. She came here to her close friends, fellow rescuers, and ferret community to talk about something others do not understand. She needed to be "heard". She needed to be supported and emphasized with. I have to be honest with you, Barb, I really felt like you had a message that you were burning to tell and were bottling up and so therefore you pounced on the first message you found that might be remotely related to it to send that out. I really feel it was an inappropriate way to do it. I felt like it was almost a political thing to do. You know ironically, Ardiths post did not support Barbs position. What happened with that incident might actually support the sanctuary position. Anyway, I feel like my friend was in essence used. I wish you had instead began a new thread, and you might have even started it off relating back to Ardith's incident if you had liked. It was actually quite a brilliant post. This subject has to be the single most hotly debated issues in our community. This makes the raw vs kibble food debate look like a two year olds fight. It's one that has gone round and round over the years and has yielded very little good. That is because rarely do people state their positions as eloquently as Barb just did. If everyone talked about it in that manner, ya know what? We'd get somewhere. We'd learn more about each others views on the subject, have more think about, and possibly might come to some constructive conclusions or best yet ... common ground. Despite the fact that it seems like nothing good has yet to come from debating this issue, I feel like we still must try now and then. Why? Because it's the elephant in the room. Because we know very little about it from not talking about it, and the lack of information will inevitably hurt these tiny little creatures we seek to protect. I guess the cat is out of the bag so to speak. In the near future, my column will highlight a sanctuary owner, Cathy Strobach. I have sought to touch upon this topic for two years. But I had to wait for when it was appropriate (in this case to spotlight little Bisquits misadventure and how Cathy helped him), and I had to make sure that who I was holding up as a responsible model for the concept had an top notch facility. The opportunity is here, and I am very excited about that. I am too late for one thing, however. I am absolutely devasted beyond words that our dear Rebecca McFarlane passed away before this article was to be published. She was to be honored as well. She was to represent the majority of sanctuaries that are run in secret as opposed to Cathy who does not. Yes, the McFarlanes ran a sanctuary. She ran it alone. She financed it alone. She suffered through the trials and tribulations that all rescuers go through ... totally alone. She also was a good example of how a sanctuary could be run "right". Members of the IFC have seen the McFarlane home in the past as well as many others reliable ferret people and vouched very positively about it, so much so I don't think a day went by that Rebs' friends and SOS did not encourage her to at the very least claim a 503 status, let alone call it a sanctuary/shelter. She would not. She thought of shelter operators as movie stars. Stars that she thought she was not worthy of walking among. She said that all she did was take in old and sickly ferrets to take loads off of other rescuers and to take in local strays and throw aways. They were her babies. Because they were her "kids", she felt like she was getting all of the benefit out of the situation and so she would not take credit for that. However, she was very supportive of the sanctuary idea. She was very supportive to those who did what she did, in secret. She VERY open minded to the idea that not all ferrets are fit for adoption nor were all ferrets fit to live in a sanctuary setting. Here is where we get into my heartfelt belief. If we don't discuss this openly. If we don't discuss it with great restraint. And if we don't take it a step further into opening our minds even if we are 100% against something, do you know what we will continue to have? Collectors. We will also have those who are doing GOOD but have to suffer or stop doing what they are doing from the strain and stress of secrecy. The more open we are, the more good people like Cathy Strobach and Reb will be open and come forward and continue with their work. The more open we are, the more we'll find and see those struggling and who are not doing good and hurting these beautiful little animals. It's a win-win situation. Bashing this practice will only make it harder to find those people that quite frankly, need to be found. The ferret community is unique from all other animal communities in many ways. One of those is that I feel we police ourselves much better than any other group. Let me tell ya, if you have more than a "few" ferrets, you're gonna hear a knockin' at your door. It might not be today. But it will be someday. Come on, admit it ... even when you visit another ferret persons home for personal reasons and for friendship, you can't tell me that at the very back of your mind and that you aren't thinking, "and this will be good because on top of meeting this person like I've always wanted to, I can make sure they are not some nut that is horribly mistreating their ferrets". Barb might be seeing more sanctuaries from her vantage point. But from mine, she is wrong. There are no more sanctuaries than there were. In fact, as an outsider whom many people confide in, not only do I think it's the same, but it could be less. It feels like more, because more people are coming out in the open a bit. Also we've been policing things a lot more as we have more and more forums, so they are outed more. It's a dark secret that there are sanctuaries. It's a taboo subject. I wish we'd take an ax to it, personally. People are always going to do what Reb and many more do. People are always going to collect. Lets make them feel comfortable so they come out of the closet. This way we can support those who are truly helping, we can educate those who are faltering, and we can shut down those who are hurting the animals. With the talk, we can also get to the bottom of the heart of the matter here. Is it in the best interest of all ferrets to be bounced around and rehomed? Is it worse to bounce them around yet once again after adjusting to multi ferret home, or is it worse to house them in crowded situation and deny them the intimacy of home ownership? WE DON'T KNOW. I repeat, WE DON'T KNOW. So before anyone says it's a black and white thing, lets keep this topic open. Lets learn, research, and think it through. This will not be settled in days, nor weeks, but years. I don't want to see the sick situations that the dog world has quite frankly. Far too many accepted "sanctuaries" that are just institutions like those run for humans so many generations ago holding young, healthy, adjusted dogs who would do better in a loving home. But I also don't want to see what they are doing in their shelters either! I see dogs going insane, spinning in circles because they are living in a shelter situations their whole entire lives because they really are unadoptable. All do to the unrealistic hopes of the shelter operators. I'd rather see those animals in a proper, spacious sanctuary type of home or euthanized quite frankly. In both cases, the animals loose due to stubbornness. I will say no more about it myself. Why? Because all I do know about this subject, is that "we do not know the scientific facts about this subject yet". I know that I need to keep an open mind that someday we might find it to be unhealthy to keep ferrets in crowded homes. I know that some day I might find out for a fact that they are better off not being adopted out in many cases. I know that people like Barb are irreplaceable. I know that people like Cathy are as well. The hundreds of animals that have come through their doors, would otherwise have been dead. That's all I know. Wolfy [Posted in FML 5729]