I was in Chicago over the weekend and learned a few things re: the two shelters there. I called the state office that regulates shelters and animal adoption places and asked about the GCFA and FAIR shelters. They had never heard of the FAIR shelter and told me that if Mary was indeed adopting out animals, (approximately 3 according to an ad I saw in a ferret newsletter) she was doing so in violation of state laws, since her shelter is not licensed . I also asked about the GCFA shelter. They told me it IS licensed and highly recommended. They have received no complaints about it and it has passed all inspections to date. They had their Open House on sunday and had quite a crowd. I asked about the rumours and they showed me the documentation. Seems that, at one time, biters WERE , indeed, being "Put to sleep" as their records noted. 41 to be exact. The curious thing is that these "euthenasias" all happened while the shelter was in Mary's house and none had occurred since it became a free-standing shelter. You can read that any way you like, but to me, it sounds like FAIR is not playing fair and the "pot" is, indeed, "calling the kettle black". Dale [Posted in FML issue 0538]