I read an article in  Wigantoday.net about a ferret which was found wandering around Liverpool.  It was picked up and taken to a ferret rescue, where it was kept for “about” 7 days before being rehomed.

The owner of Fez, the ferret, had put up posters all around where she lived and was doing everything she could to find him, and 12 days later managed to track him down to the ferret rescue.  
In an earlier article, you’ll see that when she spoke to the rescue people, they told her that they had rehoused Fez “only hours earlier” and they have refused to return him to his rightful owner because they said … and I quote … 
“It is important we keep a relationship of trust with our adopters and that wouldn’t last long if we allowed ferrets which have come to us legally to be properly re-homed only then to take them away again because the original owner has come forward.”
Do you think this is a fair thing to do, especially to a ferret owner who has been frantically searching for her lost pet?
If someone goes to the ferret rescue and picks a particular ferret out to take home, then the owner comes along and wants to claim it back again, what should be done?  
I would think that perhaps the rescue organization should have something in its rules which is as fair as possible to both parties.  Of course you don’t want a ferret to be rehomed then have to go and tell the new owners they can’t have the ferret any more, but what about the original owner’s rights?
It really is a very thorny issue, isn’t it?
Something like that happened to me about 8 years ago.  My friend, who was Rescue Coordinator for WAFFS, called and asked if I could go to a nearby neighborhood and pick up a ferret who was found in someone’s house.  I said sure.
I picked up the ferret, brought her home and kept her in a spare cage I had.  WAFFS advertised in all the local and state newspapers and we waited for the owner to come forward to claim her ferret.  Nothing happened, so after a week I thought it was a bit unfair to keep this poor ferret all alone in a cage so I introduced her to my own ferrets and she fitted straight in with them.
She was with me for 3 months, I had named her Snoopy and was planning to take her to the vet to be sterilized when I got a call from my friend.  She had just been on the phone to someone who had been away in Darwin for all those months and when she got back, she found that her ferret had escaped from her ex-husband’s place and she was beside herself with worry and grief.
My friend said all the facts pointed to Snoopy being this person’s ferret so could she come and see her to make sure it was, in fact, her pet.
Of course I agreed and when this lady came to our house and saw Snoopy, it was pretty obvious that she knew it was her ferret so she took it away with her.  Even though I was very happy that the ferret had been reunited with her rightful owner, I still felt really, really sad that she’d been taken away as she’d settled in beautifully with all the other ferrets and was such a delightful little girl.
Now as it happened, the lady was transferred to Darwin and when she found out she couldn’t have ferrets in the Northern Territory, she called me and asked if I would like to take Snoopy back permanently.  I was more than happy to accept and so Snoops returned to the fold.
I personally think it’d be a wonderful thing if the people who took Fez home from the rescue center decided that they should give him back to his original owner and pick another ferret out to take home with them.
But failing that, perhaps it’s time for the rescue center to write out a new set of rules that will give more time for a new ferret to stay there before being rehomed; or that will warn new owners that they might have to return a ferret if the original owner comes forward in the first week of the adoption.
Too bad King Solomon isn’t around to give a wise judgment on this issue!

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Filed under: Ferrets as Pets

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