December 03

31.12.03

Got a call this morning from a lady who was involved in a rescue "mission", this 70 odd year old man had been sick for 3 weeks and neglected his animals (not that I think that he ever looked after them well). He had a puppy farm, the lady who called me runs a yorkie rescue and said she'd taken 11 yorkies who had badly matted coats and were in an awful condition, there were also some rabbits that were taken by a friend of hers (some were dead...), another person was taking the highland terriers- and there were 4 ferrets, would I take them. How could I say no even though I don't really have room or the money. But we went and fetched the ferrets, they were all kept on their own but are now in 1 group. 2 sable/ polecat jills, one albino jill, one albino hob. First thing we did here was cut their claws and bath them. Hard to do when they all bite! I cuddled one jill later on and thought she'd come round, she was doing the cute ferret thing, lying on her back and cleaning her face and I stroked her- until she locked on my one thumb, then the other finger and last not least my one knuckle...

But anyway, the old man is in hospital now. I hope he'll never have animals again, people like him disgust me, they shouldn't have any animals- ever. Baby, Dana and Fox were in a dirty little cage like that when I rescued them almost 6 years ago... Makes me so sad to think how many ferrets are kept like that out there. Oh, and the RSPCA were called out to this place 6 months ago and didn't do anything. Like the animals have food and shelter, what more do they want! All people who do animal rescue have nothing good to say about the RSPCA. And I feel like unless they're being filmed by national TV, they do nothing. There should be laws for animals, they should have rights, rights to have big enough, clean cages, sufficient bedding and food and water, AND daily exercise. And if people don't keep animals right, there should be a body like the RSPCA that prosecutes those people and that *has to* take the animals in and rehome them. But according to what I read not long ago, our Welsh National Assembly is giving farmers money to start puppy farms! Am I missing something here??? They give people money so they can inflict cruelty on dogs but rescue people of course don't get any financial help at all.

These are pictures of the "cages", the poor ferrets all had a 2 foot cage each. It makes me so sad to think that this was their life. No love, no play time, no exercise, nothing. The guy had just kept them to breed them. Here in Britain this isn't profitable and many "breeders" are lucky if they find people who will take kits for *free*. The ferrets are middle aged, I would think between 3-5 years. The albino hob looks around 4 or 5 and acts old and to think that he probably spent his whole life in this 2 ft cage... What goes round and round my head is the fact that there are *loads* of people who keep their ferrets like that. There are so many people who keep ferrets for hunting and they keep them locked in these tiny cages and the ferrets only get out when it's "hunting time". Okay, there are people who hunt with ferrets who actually like their ferrets and keep them well but the majority keep them badly, feed cheap food and don't think of the ferrets' needs or welfare.

The ferrets squabbled at first when I put them all together and there was some minor fighting and screaming for the first 24 hours. They also messed all over their cage and bedding and were impossible when out, they pooed and peed everywhere every 5 minutes. Luckily we have lino and laminate floors! They didn't know what to do when they were first out, didn't play, didn't do anything. Then over the next few days they started using the toilet in their cage, almost 100%. They also now use the litter boxes when they have time out. Only the odd accident now. I have started letting them out with Spike who we rescued in November and who is still on his own. Spike was really chuffed to have friends. He immediately played with the polecat jills and today he and the albino jill played for ages. The jills all play with toys, plastic bags and the pipes. The albino hob is very quiet and just walks around. He reminds me sooo much of Mason... I wish I could keep him but there's no way he would be able to go into any of my groups and I can't have a fourth group... I love albinos...