Someone posted about a shelter that asked questions about marital status, household income, work schedule, children, etc. and seemed genuinely offended by those questions. My feeling is that it borders on irresponsiblity of the shelters NOT to investigate these issues to some degree before adoption to a home. "Owning" ferrets does not automatically make you a suitable candidate to own more. Judging from my (admittedly limited) experiences, there are quite a few folks out there with ferrets that either should not have them (i.e. never home, can't afford basic vet bills, don't have any desire to learn about what their pet needs), or who don't know how to care properly for them and are unwilling to learn. Unfortuantely, those people probably don't subscribe to the FML. I would say most ferret owners want to give their ferrets the world, but simply aren't educated enough to know what 'good' is. Many people in my community don't know that ferrets need vaccinations, shouldn't be on MeowMix, shouldn't be kept in pine beddings, have a scruff-reflex, etc. Most of these folks are very enthusiastic about learning more. These are the people I don't mind adopting to because I know that they are willing to learn what their pet needs to be healthy. Back to the original point (now that I've rambled a bit off topic). It's the obligation of the shelter to ensure that their ferrets are adopted out to the most suitable homes possible. If you have 3 children under the age of 5, a $15000/year income, are single, and have 4 ferrets, 2 dogs, and 3 cats (all unvaccinated), should this person be allowed to adopt a ferret? I would not adopt to this person. If the only thing the shelter asked was, "Do you have any ferrets so that you know how to care for them?" the answer would be, "Yes," and the screening would be over. Please bear in mind that I'm by no means accusing the original poster of being an unfit 'parent,' but the questions are asked to make _sure_ the ferrets go to a decent home. -Erin... |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | *** Help Stop the SPAMMING of the Internet! Visit www.cauce.org! *** | |=======================================================================| |/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ eennis(at)zoo,uvm,edu is... /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/| |\/ Mr. Erin M. Ennis, Water Resources Major, University of Vermont /\| |/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/| |\/\/\/\/\/\*** VISIT http://www.upstartmagazine.com ***/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\| ;/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/; |\/\/\/\/\/\ I can't complain but sometimes I still do. Joe Walsh /\/\| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Posted in FML issue 2286]