I too have been reading these posts and agree with Larry. It is important that the Shelters spend time in the stores, both educating the Staff as well as the customers interested in ferrets. The PETCO's in my area WELCOME and ENCOURAGE all Shelters/Rescue Groups to come in with their animals, and that includes the Ferret Shelters. The only difference that I see with this and other states ... In Massachusetts, you can not adopt an animal on the property of a PETCO or any other store that you set up on. Now, we never did even when you could ... I guess we have a stricter standard than say some of the other types of animals :-) You have to physically go to the Shelter or the Foster home to adopt/pick up the animal. "Meet and Greets" are important to do in any store that carry ferrets, we do one every month in our local PETCO. If we had more people involved and had the time .. We too could do them every weekend, unfortunately .. There are only two, sometimes three, of us that do all of them :-( We also do a Nails/Ears and Teeth cleaning Clinic" for a small fee just for ferrets to help draw in and EDUCATE ferret owners. Also, Anita Bell wondered "What PETCO gets out of having Shelters come into their stores to do Adoptions". Not sure about PetSmart or Pet Supplies Plus .. But, PETCO gets nothing from the Shelters adopting out some of their animals. Do I think it's possible to get PETCO to stop carrying ferrets ... YES! The Rabbit people did it, why not us. It will take some doing, but it is possible. I don't care who is in charge of trying to Campaign this issue. Do I want them to stop ... I will admit ... Most of me says yes and part says no. Debi Sadowski - You brought up some good points about most PETCOs ... but not all. And this is another reason we need to get into them and EDUCATE the employees. At the very least we should be campaigning PETCO to do a better job about TRAINING their people about Ferrets. I am sorry that you have had such bad experiences with the PETCOs that you have visited .. Not all PETCOs are equal. I will admit that I work at one .. The ENTIRE STAFF here does CARE!! We have actually refused to sell a ferret to someone we feel would not make a good parent. I know that this doesn't happen in most though and one of the reasons I want to see them stop carrying ferrets. I would like to clear up two things that you brought up though. Their return policy is 15 days, not 7 and we do encourage them to return them to us if they find it is not a match for their household. Also ... Per Policy, the store is required to have the ferrets vaccinated for distemper and rabies at 14 weeks, 16 weeks and 18 weeks of age if they are still in the store at those ages. If you have a PETCO NOT doing that, they are violating Company Policy! I also agree ... In most PETCOs where there is also a ferret owner, the ferrets are better watched over and handled. But if there is not a ferret person on, tragedies that you have mentioned do happen and even more in these times when we are so under staffed and there are times when only "kids are covering the floor :-( I strongly agree with the Anonymous Poster - "Petco is probably the most responsible chain pet store when it comes to taking care of the animals, but no one is perfect and it does depend sometimes on the manager." Many times we too have "adopted out" animals that are older. I too have seen them spend thousands on surgeries and then adopt the animal out because the animal is no longer "perfect" and sellable. There is another large animal retailer in my area that does NOT believe in taking a sick or injured animal to the vet ... it is taken out back and inhumanely KILLED! They also carry ferrets :-( Talk about a chain that should NOT be carrying ferrets ... THEY are IT!! I had people come in to my store for supplies and to look for another ferret,, that had bought their current ferret at the "other" chain. I started to ask them questions and wanted to know what their ferret's name was ... They replied, "HIS name is Stevie." To which I replied ... "I hate to tell you, Stevie is a girl" They had been told it was a boy and was most definitely a girl, LOL. At least even "the Kids" in my store know how to tell the difference. If we stop carrying ferrets ... This will be the ONLY place in my area people will have to go to buy them :-( SCARY!! I will finish with this ... PETCO does mean it when they say "Animals Come First" and if ANYONE goes into one that they don't feel is doing right by ANY animal ... contact the Store Manager and "nicely" voice your concerns. If THAT doesn't work .... CALL the Corporate Offices... They WILL correct the problem! And if it continues ... keep calling! I have seen Store Managers loose their jobs over poor animal care. Dianna The Educated Ferret Association [Posted in FML 6621]