Rescue update! 48 rescued ferrets
Hi all just a quick rescue update,
Not much time to write, but thought I would update everyone with how the rescued kids were doing. All but one is now out of quarantine and they seem to enjoy the hammocks and the woodshaving-free environment. Many of the goopy eyes and sniffly nosed kids are starting to clear up now. One of the naked girls had her adrenal surgery and is recovering well. Overall the health level is improving.
We’ve had volunteers help with the ferrets with the rotten, rotten teeth by cleaning off as much gunk as possible. We are probably going to be able to save some of the teeth that looked hopelessly lost before they spent hours working on them
Local people and Internet folks have been very kind. Totally Ferret, The Petco Foundation, Pingford’s Porridge and SOS have stepped up to help procure supplies and get these ferrets on a decent diet. All of the them are finally getting enough protein to blow their coats and boy are they shedding!! People have helped clean, move cages, and helped name all these kids. (Forgive me if I’ve missed you!)
Many of the ferrets will be ready for adoption in the near future. The website will probably take a while to be updated and we need to do photos of everyone…that can be a process.
Our biggest hurdle right now are the people who went over to take ferrets from the initial situation with the intent to resell them for money. We are trying to get the man with 24 ferrets in a fish tank investigated in Boise. He is probably unrelated to the initial rescue, but isn’t doing the animals any good by selling them for $30 and keeping them in a urine soaked environment. There are sick and cancerous ferrets there and he is not treating any of them. In fact he offers if you buy a healthy one, you can get a sick one for free!!! A volunteer went over and said there isn’t any visible food/water source. We’re working with local animal authorities about it, but it isn’t easy or fast. Wondering if they were better off at the Morrison residence in this case and that’s saying a lot!
We did find a ferret in the rescue with a microchip from our shelter. Just another piece of evidence that the person with all the ferrets did not actively seek owners, and another nice piece of evidence to show that the ferrets DID NOT come from a pet store in Arizona or New Mexico or whatever the story was (not that it was believable in the first place). The sad part is, this ferret was from a pair, and we did not get his original bonded cagemate in the bunch we have here.
We did lose the starvation boy, but he did put up a fight. We think we was just too weak, even though he was eating and getting some weight. When the volunteer first took him from the location, she could touch her fingers together in his midsection and he was nothing but skin and bones. This past Sunday I found him gone in his sleepsack curled up with his buddies. His body just must’ve given out in his sleep. At least he had a name when he passed and food in his stomach.
Bill and I and the volunteers are hanging in there, and we know many of the shelters run at numbers much higher than what we have right now. We are just new to a large influx and hope that we can soon contact the media and get some coverage. I’m waiting on a go for that, so that they can soon be placed into homes.
Thanks to everyone for being supportive.
Follow us on twitter for fast updates: emmettferrret
Thank you,
Emmett Ferret Shelter
Idaho