shelter website: www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html
and www.myspace.com/ferretanddove
Petfinder listing: http://ferretanddovesanctuary.petfinder.com
About 12 years ago, one of Wesley’s grandsons and his mother had a little ferret that Wes discovered they had moved her cage outside into the summer heat because they didn’t care to clean up after the ferret so much. Wes demanded they give that ferret to him, so they did. This first rescue became Snuggles LuWeasey. Within the next few months we bought-rescued 6 more ferrets from around our area, then we were interviewed by the Associated Press while we still had just 7 ferrets and that article “Ferrets Not For Everyone” can still be found. (here is a copy of that first article (we passed along the contact number for Dr. Kemmerer and several other vets and it appears that Dr. Kemmerer gave the A.P. reporter a concurring interview for this article…..).
Exotic pet demands extra-special care.
(The Associated Press as printed in the November 28, 1999 “The News-Press”, Fort Myers, Florida)
PENSACOLA - Wesley Hurley got his first ferret, Snuggles, a couple years ago from an 8-year-old grandson who had proven too young for the exotic pet.
Hurley now has six of the weasel-like creatures, also obtained from people who tired of their pets or could not properly care for the cuddly but controversial creatures.
“They will steal your heart and hide it under the couch,” said the 65-year-old retired Merchant Marine officer as he watched ferrets romp around his Pensacola living room. “They take anything they can get their hands on.”
Ferrets may be frisky and cute and their hide-and-seek antics are fun to watch, but they are not for everyone.
They have an odor some people cannot abide, sleep 18 hours a day, eat a specialized diet, need close supervision when freed from their cages for daily exercise and are prone to getting a type of cancer that is difficult and expensive to treat, animal experts say.
Ferret fans say worries about rabies and biting are overblown, but the animals are banned in two states - California and Hawaii - as well as New York City and some other communities.
With Christmas approaching, Hurley said he is afraid people will be tempted to give ferrets as gifts.
“Don’t buy them for small kids,” he said. “They require care and once the kid gets tired of them that’s it, the ferrets on its way out.”
The Humane Society of the United States actually recommends no animals be given as gifts during the holiday season because it’s too hectic to bring a new pet into the home at that time., said Cynthia Stitely, interim director of animal sheltering issues for the organization based in Washington, D.C.
Ferrets were domesticated in the 1300’s for hunting rabbits, said Connie Howard, director for the American Humane Association, based in Denver.
“Until the ’70’s, when they learned how to de-scent them, they weren’t pets because they stunk so bad,” she said. Even when de-scented, however, the animals have a musky oder.
Ferrets overcame another obstacle when a rabies vaccine was approved for them in 1990.
Hawaii, as a rabies free state, is strict on all animals while California’s ban dates to the 1930’s when many states prohibited their use for hunting, said James Pembrook Scott, general counsel for the American Ferret Association in Crownsville, Md.
Ferret lovers have defied the California law risking up to a year in jail and $1,000 fine. About 50 people walked or carried ferrets through the San Diego park to protest the ban last year. Legislation has been introduced to legalize ferrets but has not passed.
New York City’s Health Department banned ferrets in June, issuing a report that concluded they are prone to attacking humans, particularly young children.
Dr. Deborah Kemmerer, a Gainsville veterinarian and ferret expert, said the creatures are getting a bad rap. She did a statistical breakdown and found a person with a dog in the home was 25 times more likely to be bitten.
The experts say no animal should be allowed around small children without supervision. Children, however, are as much, if not more, of a danger to ferrets.
“I have seen ferrets die from ruptured spleens from getting squeezed to death by a kid,” Kemmerer said.
Cancerous adrenal tumors are the biggest health problem, usually requiring surgery costing from $325 to more than $550, she said. Early symptoms are loss of hair, particularly from the tail.
Kemmerer said ferrets, which can live 7 to 8 years, also need annual checkups, vaccinations and heart worm preventive. Owners are advised to “ferret proof” their homes by patching small holes and removing recliners and sleeper sofas that can crush the curious animals.
“They gave the incredible ability to squeeze their body into small spaces that you would never dream they could get into,” said the Humane Society’s Stitely, herself a ferret owner.
They also will chew on and swallow small objects and like to dig, sometimes applying that instinct to carpets and flower pots. Many owners keep them caged except for daily exercise periods and never let them outside.
Many animal shelters are unaccustomed to dealing with them, so ferret rescue groups have been established in some communities. In others, individuals such as Hurley take in unwanted animals. He watches classified ads for people trying to sell their ferrets.
“They say, ‘Well I’ve got $150 to $200 tied up in this thing and I’d like to get my money out of it.’ “Hurley said. “I say, ‘Tell you what, go ahead and try to sell them and if you can’t call me back.’ ”
Hurley has had about a half-dozen callbacks so far. He said he may put some of his ferrets up for adoption but will be very selective.
“If the person had not had a ferret before, then they better learn about them,” he said. “They’re just not the little kitty- and puppy-type thing
We actually started sheltering around 1997, but became incorporated as The Ferret & Dove Sanctuary, Inc. on Aug. 1st, 2003. We began sheltering because of the needs of the military families. There was a need for someone, ANYONE who would take care of the pets that they could not take with them when they were transferred; someone who wouldn’t kill those pets after just a week like the county-run shelters have to.
There are always special ferrets. Lady CokeLeSweet, a tiny albino female, originally was owned by a neglectful person who called her “cocaine” (not a good connotation, huh) and then rescued and treated back to some health by her ferret-rescuer who “scruffed” Coke to get her to accept her vet-ordered medication and soft-prepared-food. Lady Coke resented being scruffed (grasped and held by the skin of the back of her neck) and frequently bit at her rescuer, who also happened to be a smoker. In the year 2000, Lady CokeLeSweet, as I re-named her, and her cage-mate Cecelia Cinnamon (who had the plain not-really-even a name of “sable”) came to be with the Ferret & Dove Sanctuary of Pensacola.
No way would I “scruff” Lady CokeLeSweet. For most ferrets, taking them by the slightly loose skin on the back of their necks was fine if not done too roughly, so that a care-giver might be more safely able to give needed medications (like antibiotics or diabetes-treatment, etc, as ordered by their vets) or clip nails or clean ears. However, Lady CokeLeSweet much resented this treatment, so I changed tactics entirely to help her get the nutrition and finish giving her vet-ordered meds as well.
Determined to treat her like the Lady she really was, I would put her medicine and soft-prepared-food on the open palm of my hand and let her rest on my arm. In this picture, taken about two months after she was with us, she is just beginning to show the weight and boisterous health she has fully regained. She declined to bite at either me or my husband. She has only bitten at people whose skin smelled of cigarette smoke. (no one does that, either, at our house!) [Just consider, if you do smoke…if your secondhand smoke will kill your adult spouse before it nails you, that’s bad. Since that’s bad, you know that for your children inhaling it , it’s worse. That a small baby having to inhale it is worse-YET!, and that ferrets are, most of them, smaller than human babies, and with much smaller, more fragile lungs. Now consider, if you will, that they can smell all 101 of the poisons including rat poison that manufacturers put into each cigarette. WOULD YOU want to be around something you could smell, Plain as Day!, were poisoned?…now you will begin to understand the recalcitrance of MANY animals and birds (yes, birds can smell, too!) against the touch of any humans who smoke or are around so much of secondhand smoke that the stench is “soaked” into their skin.)
Sheltering can be challenging. If you don’t have at least 3 people to help you run the shelter, and you are not already swimming in cash, don’t start. In the same way that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money, only much more so, a shelter is a hole in the heart into which you will never have enough money to keep pouring in.
We almost went into foreclosure on our house SEVERAL times trying to gather supplies and wherewithal for the veterinary medical bills and sank to the point of using the money for the mortgage payments on the weekly animals’ supplies.
Sometimes it is hard to find the positive part of sheltering. People want things, services, and help from the shelter-folks, but no one seems to be willing to help the shelter-folks. We’ve been stuck for several times the worth of our home over the last ten years.
Being able to “be there” for the military and “be there” for the folks who had their lives and homes wiped out after Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis was alright, but no one ever wants to “be there” for the old folks trying to keep the shelter running or together. It gets tiresome. We’re seriously considering that this is the last year that we CAN do this, any more, after all, and have already posted notices that we can no longer take ferrets in from the general public; ONLY from active-duty military or the animal police who can each show valid I.D. for their genuine emergencies.
