Todd Leuthold wrote: >It would appear that in Canada (well, that province, at least) and maybe >elsewhere, it is OK to decide that you want your pet killed and you will >find plenty of support to do so. This is no different from what happens here in the USA. When I was in college studying horse husbandry, I took some of the vet tech classes. In one of the labs the vet who ran the department had us watch as a healthy male cat was put down. He explained that there was nothing wrong with the cat per se, but it was unneutered and sprayed the owners house in a manner which she found unacceptable. ('So', we all said, 'neuter the cat!!') He told us he had discussed that option with the owner (who was not there for the euthenasia-she had dropped the cat off.) She felt the cat wouldn't be happy if she had it neutered. She prefered to have it put down. (Yes, *our* mouths were hanging open too!!) The vet explained, somewhat sadly that in situations like this, once they had accepted the animal to be euthanized they HAD to, by law, put the animal down. They could not dispose of the animal in a manner contrary to the owners wishes. He could have refused to do the euthanasia, but she would have eventually found someone else to do it. Adoption contract issues aside, the owner of a ferret (or any other pet), can put it down because they don't want to pay for medical care the ferret would need to maintain it's health, because they don't want to keep it anymore (or can't) and don't think it would be happy in anyone elses care, or because they decide they don't like the color of it's fur. The bottom line is that an owner can have their pet put down for any reason whatsoever. Or for no reason whatsoever. It stinks but it happens. I guess it's no *worse* than animals being put down due to pure overpopulation/not being able to place the shelter animals, but that stinks too. I should note here that shelters don't necessarily attempt to place animals with a history of biting. When my friend Jane (Jane Wright of the TIckles incident) had a neighbor that adopted an adult chow (dog) with an attitude as their first dog. In less than a month it bit several kids in the neighborhood, including Jane's son. Jane made several phone calls to shelters and breed rescues and was told the same thing by all of them-if surrendered the dog would be put down, no attempt to rehabilitate it and place it would be done. The dog had his rabies shots, but the owner didn't want to pay for boarding for a quarantine. (There was pressure being put on the owner to get rid of the dog; Jane wanted to see the dog in a home with a handler who was more capable of dealing with an aggressive animal.) The dog was put down. (And its head sent to the state rabies lab for testing since the dog had bitten yet another kid and wasn't going through a quarantine.) Ferret shelters seem to be an exception to this "if it bites, euthaninze it" attitude-we have had subscribers here who specialize in rehabbing bad biters (which isn't necessarily the situation with the Ontario Ferret). But keep in mind that most animal shelters handling dogs and cats have animals that are big enough to do a lot of damage when they bite; rehabbing them can be quite dangerous. So it makes sense for them to make it a policy to put those animals down that are high risk to handle and low chance for placement and spend their limited dollars on those which can be saved and placed. If you are willing to take on ferrets that bite and rehab them, let the regular animal shelter know and maybe they'll work with you to get you the ones they recieve. But that is their decision, and they may say 'no' too. -Ilena Ayala [Posted in FML issue 2744]