Feral Cat Summit Coming November 10th
October 14th, 2007On Saturday, November 10, volunteers and animal welfare professionals from all over the country are invited to the Fourth Annual National Feral Cat Summit in Orlando, FL, to learn some of the most effective and progressive techniques in caring for feral cats. The two-day conference offers a program packed with guest speakers, presentations and workshops lead by experts in the animal welfare field, including:
* Disaster Preparation for Feral Cat Programs and Caretakers
* Feral Cats and Wildlife: Moving from Confrontation to Collaboration
* Organizing and Running a Feral Cat Mass Spay/Neuter Clinic
The ASPCA will be offering a two-day “wet lab” for veterinarians and veterinary technicians, instructed by Julie Levy, DVM, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville. This workshop will give participants a first-hand view of feral cat sterilization techniques and an opportunity to gain practical experience while earning continuing education credits.
Tickets are $55 online, which includes a boxed lunch and evening reception. Reduced-price tickets are currently being offered to Florida residents, but they must be purchased by mail from Neighborhood Cats; please contact feralcatsummit@yahoo.com for more information. Please visit Neighborhood Cats for a complete program listing and to purchase tickets.
Government considering using ferrets to control prairie dogs
October 13th, 2007In Kansas, the federal government is considering an experiment that would use ferrets to reduce the exploding population of prairie dogs in Logan County. The five-year experiment would be administered by the Kansas Ecological Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Manhattan. Four landowners in the county said they would take part in the government’s efforts, but the Logan County Commission voted to decline the experiment on a county-wide basis.
Logan County Clerk Pat Schippers said the prairie dog population has multiplied “at a huge rate” in the county this year and the animals are “out of control.” But she said the commission was concerned that introducing ferrets would hurt current efforts to control prairie dogs with chemicals.
The black-footed ferrets are one of the rarest mammals in North America and are on the Endangered Species list. The Wildlife Service has wanted to reintroduce the black-footed ferret to parts of its historical range on the Great Plains for years, said field supervisor Mike LeValley, and has reintroduced them in South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico with mixed results.
LeValley said black-footed ferret uses prairie dogs’ burrows for shelter and feeds almost exclusively on prairie dogs and other small animals, so the animals could create a natural balance with the prairie dogs in Logan County.
Field agents spent last week in Logan County mapping land being considered for ferret placement.
LaValley said his agency must address two key public concerns for ferret reintroduction – keeping ferrets from encroaching on land where landowners want prairie dogs and compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
Should the experiment be approved, one of the conditions would be a guarantee to all neighboring landowners that the study would not hinder use of their land in any way, including the right to control prairie dogs on their property.
At the end of the five years, if the experiment is deemed unsuccessful, any ferrets remaining alive would be trapped and taken to a different site.
BLM Auction of Ferret Habitat
October 12th, 2007
Energy development and environmental protection are clashing yet again, this time in Colorado, where the Bureau of Land Management yesterday auctioned 150,000 acres of turf for oil and gas development. For months now, we’ve heard noise out of the BLM that their top goal is a reorganization to create a “one stop shop” for energy developers that will grease the wheels of the leasing process. But in a case of a “multiple use” policy perhaps stretched a bit thin, the agency offered up a chunk of land where it has been trying to establish a colony of endangered black-footed ferrets, ruffling the fur of environmental groups. Protests have ensued; lawsuit almost assuredly to follow.
Meanwhile, the BLM’s likely new honcho, Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne, is holding down the fort in Boise, awaiting confirmation. Kempthorne’s nomination was reviewed and approved by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday, and has been passed along for a confirmation vote. His confirmation is expected to turn on issues related to energy development on public lands.
New reports about the extent of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying operations have been making the rounds and raising a fuss around the country. An interesting Western angle on the story has emerged along with the new information. The Denver Post reports that former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who worked closely with the feds on intelligence projects, successfully resisted NSA efforts to access Qwest customer records. Qwest was the only one of the four Baby Bells to tell the NSA to take a flying, while Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth provided the government with the 411 on millions of their customers.
The booming popularity of “peak bagging” is having its environmental toll on Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains, according to this interesting feature by Joshua Zaffos of the Colorado Springs Independent. Efforts by a private land owner to restrict access to one of CO’s most popular bagging routes has raised a kafuffle.
SOURCE: The New West
Rocky Mountain Media Grok BLM – Auction of Ferret Habitat Ruffles Environmental Fur
Rescued Ferrets in Trouble Again
October 10th, 2007Disease that’s afflicting their only prey, the prairie dog, is slowing their rebound in wild.
WALL, S.D. — Black-footed ferrets — weasels with a burglar’s mask that were brought back after reaching the brink of extinction — are facing a new challenge from the spread of plague in prairie dogs, their only prey.
The disease has slowed the growth of the wild population, which is constantly replenished by the introduction of captive-bred ferrets. And plague is approaching a colony of prairie dogs that supports half the wild ferret population. Wildlife biologists are waiting to see if the disease will reach the Conata Basin here, a treeless moonscape next to Badlands National Park with the largest population of the highly endangered black-footed ferrets anywhere in the country.
“If we lose Conata, oh boy, the program is in trouble,” said Michael Lockhart, coordinator of the black-footed ferret recovery program for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. There are about 850 of the ferrets in the United States: about 350 in a breeding center at Fort Collins, Colo., and the rest at 10 sites in the West and one in Mexico. About 250 of the wild ferrets live in the Conata Basin.
The plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, is the one that caused the Black Death in Europe. A few cases of plague occur in humans in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the disease can be treated with antibiotics.
It takes a huge toll among prairie dogs, however. Little is known about the spread of plague, except that fleas spread it from rodent to rodent, but researchers suspect outbreaks may depend on climate.
In 2005, one of the warmest years on record in South Dakota, plague wiped out hundreds, perhaps thousands, of acres of black-tailed prairie dogs 38 miles south of here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
It is likely that if plague shows up it will be this spring, though no one really knows.
“It might be OK or it might be a salvage operation, it’s hard to say,” said Pete Gober, with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Biologists have begun weekly patrols for dead prairie dogs. If signs of plague appear, they may begin quickly removing or vaccinating ferrets. But prairie dogs cannot be vaccinated, so even if ferrets survived the plague they would most likely lose their only prey and starve.
A ferret eats about 140 prairie dogs each year, and black-footed ferrets, the only ferrets native to North America, live in prairie dog towns, in the midst of their food supply. Prairie dogs are despised by many ranchers and farmers because they eat grass and often live near cattle herds, so a ruthless private and federal campaign wiped out 99 percent of them by 1960. By the late 1970s, the black-footed ferret, deprived of its prey, was thought to be extinct.
Then in 1981 a dog on a ranch near Meeteetse, Wyo., brought home a ferret it had killed. John and Lucille Hogg, the ranchers, took it to a taxidermist, who recognized it and called federal officials. Eighteen ferrets were found living on the ranch, the last of their kind. In a delicate operation, all were trapped and moved to a captive breeding center in Sybille, Wyo. The 18 soon became about 300.
In 1991, 48 ferrets, the first crop of the breeding program, were released in the Shirley Basin in southeastern Wyoming.
SOURCE: New York Times
Abused ferret finds a few friends
October 7th, 2007Buddy was near death a year ago.
He was malnourished, underweight and severely dehydrated. He required weeks of intensive veterinary care. Almost more shocking than his condition was his recovery. Buddy is one of numerous pet ferrets that are mistreated, neglected and abused each year. Buddy’s original owner was a member of Ferret Friends of Tucson. She suspected her pet had been stolen by a neighbor — the same one who returned the severely abused animal three months later.
“You could tell he was on his last; he was ready to die,” said Ferret Friends member Don Heywood, who lives in the same neighborhood as the other club member. “She waited until he was absolutely dying. That’s the only good thing I could say, is she did bring him to my door.”
Buddy’s nails were painted pink, he had lost half his body weight, and a doll skirt with an elastic band was wrapped so tightly around his body that it had to be cut off.
“The ferret had been abused to the point that it did physical damage — that tight clothing on it for a long period of time and dehydration,” Heywood said. “Even getting him to the vet as fast as I tried to get him there, I still thought he was dead.”
“He was presented to me for lethargy and severe dehydration,” said exotic animal veterinarian John Vagnetti. “He did stay for an extended period of time in the hospital. We had him in intensive care and on IV fluid therapy and antibiotics and supportive care.”
Buddy spent two weeks recuperating at Valley Animal Hospital, said his current owner, Ferret Friends treasurer and Raytheon engineer Dian Curran. When the $700 vet bill was more than Ferret Friends could afford, Curran stepped up, paid the tab and added Buddy to her ferret family, which now numbers eight. Curran and Heywood each own ferrets that came from abusive or neglectful homes. Still, Vagnetti doesn’t think ferrets are any more prone to abuse than other pets.
“I probably don’t see higher incidents (of abuse) in exotic pets,” he said. “It probably stands out more because the exotic pets aren’t as common as dogs and cats. With a lot of these exotic pets, the biggest problem is the owners are not well-learned in the proper husbandry and care of these animals. They bring them home because they’re unique and they have this animal they’re stuck with . . . and they’re not familiar with a lot of the animal’s needs.”
Linda Iroff, director of the Ohio-based International Ferret Congress, an education and networking nonprofit organization, agrees that owner ignorance is a bigger problem than deliberate abuse.
“Some of it might be that people aren’t familiar with ferrets and don’t know what kind of care they need. They do require a fair amount of attention, so if they’re not given the attention they need and the proper kind of food, they’re not going to be happy animals.
“Some people react to getting bitten by kicking the animal across the floor,” Iroff said. “If they kick a 75-pound dog, it’s different than if they kick a ferret.”
Owner frustration plays a part in ferret neglect, too, said Julie Fossa, of the West Central Ohio Ferret Shelter.
“I’ve been sheltering for eight years and I’ve seen a lot of unusual things,” she said. “People see this endearing little creature in the pet store and they impulse buy. They don’t realize they just brought home a perpetual 2-year-old. Not everybody’s cut out to be a ferret owner.”
Fortunately, Buddy’s new owner is a ferret person. “I think a lot of people get impulse-purchase ferrets like I did with Midnight,” said Curran about her first ferret. “They’re cute, they’re playful, but they . . . require a lot of care and after a couple of years the novelty wears off. What happened to Buddy, I have no comprehension of deliberate animal cruelty, but a lot of our ferrets come from people who abuse them.
“When I got him, he was very scared. It took him six months to recover. He was always a very curious ferret, but for three months, he just sat and was seriously depressed. Then he started coming out of it.”
A year after Buddy’s ordeal, said Curran, “He’s not as affectionate as he used to be. He’s not as much a people ferret, but he’s back to his curious self.”
SOURCE: arizona daily star
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