In response to Paula's post about the good experience she had with a PETCO in her area when she was unable to adopt from a local shelter because of her young son, I have tried to get PETCO to work with area shelters as Petsmart does. I offered to provide them with a list of shelters in the U.S. and Canada. I asked them to at least consider to stop selling ferrets in areas where shelters are overwhelmed. I also received an email from a lady who mentioned horrible experiences she is having with the PETCO in her area. I'm attempting to get her to come forward and do something about this situation. She is caring for the ferrets in the store. They are too young to chew kibble and two have died. One fell in the Midwest cage and was killed. Another was returned by a customer who had no idea why the ferret had died. These ferrets had nothing to cuddle in. They were huddled in a food bowl shivering. This lady provided bedding and clear plexy panels to shield the ferrets from the cold coming in from the doors. The manager of this PETCO owns ferrets and allows these horrible conditions? It should not be a customer's responsibility to care for ferrets in a store. I'm sure there are PETCOs with nice employees who truly care for the animals, but I'm hearing of far too many terrible situations that have to be corrected, and these have to be brought to the upper management's attention. I also understand your being upset because the shelter would not adopt to you, and I realize that every situation is different. At the Ferret Association of CT, we provide a very detailed application and everyone submits to an indepth interview. I don't know if you tried our shelter, but we have experienced people running it who know how to assess each situation. Also, consider that ferrets have not been legal in Massachusetts very long, so maybe these shelters don't have the experience with dealing with the public and being able to ascertain correctly if it is a good adoptable home, and I don't mean any slights to any shelters in MA, just that you learn from experience. We have surely made errors in judgment. I'm waiting to hear from Mr. Woodard of PETCO. I sent him samples of FML posts with the author's names deleted to give him an idea of what is occuring in various PETCOs. I did include a positive post, but the bad ones far outnumbered the good ones. Moxie Ferret Association of CT, Inc. -- * Page me online through my Personal Communication Center: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/949746 (go there and try it!) or, * Send me E-mail Express directly to my computer screen [log in to unmask] For downloading ICQ at http://www.icq.com/ For adding similar signatures to your e-mail go to: http://www.icq.com/emailsig.html Moxie [Posted in FML issue 2618]