Ferret People WE Will Miss
Ferret people are special in many different ways. This page is dedicated to those who have dedicated their efforts to helping ferrets.
Remembering Gail Suzanne Burlaka - allFerrets Founding Member & first CEO
 Gail S. Burlaka
(Nov 21, 1939 - Feb 9, 2021)
allFerrets.org dedicated its first Webinar (Apr 9, 2021 8 PM ET) to Gail Suzanne Burlaka, who passed away on February 9, 2021 at the age of 81 in Bayonet, FL.
Born on Nov 21, 1939 in NJ, she spent time in Texas and Washington state before returning to NJ where she married and raised a family. A lover of animals, Gail was a long-time member and President of the NJ Burlington County Kennel Club, actively breeding and showing Afghan Hounds for 21 years. In the 1990's, she began breeding ferrets ("Shalamar Ferrets"). She joined the American Ferret Association in 1996, serving on its board of directors, as “Member-At-Large,” until 2004. Shalamar Ferrets participated in 26 ferret championships and in many "Best in Shows," achieving a “Ferret of the Year” award in 2009. Ms. Burlaka was involved in the AFA's efforts to increase federal regulation of underage ferret kits. She also was a strong supporter of the Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Program. In 2010, she was instrumental in organizing a new national ferret organization, the American Ferret Organization, Inc., aka “allFerrets - an Online Ferret Community" where until recently she served as its first CEO. She recognized the need to bring education and connectivity within the "ferret world" encompassing all ferrets. Nancy J. Park (1957 - 2020):
allFerrets founding member dies at 63  Nancy Jean Park
(2/2/1957 – 6/13/2020)
Nancy Jean Park was one of the founding Members of allFerrets, and the founder of Ferretown USA, a small private home-based breeder of very select pedigreed ferrets located in the Pacific North West of the United States.
Nancy owned ferrets for nearly 3 decades. FerretownUSA bred mostly "sable points" - very beautiful ferrets that won many blue ribbons and "Best In Show" accolades.  Ferretown USA winner
Never had a bad word for anyone, Nancy was always available to answer ferret questions from anyone who asked. A diagnosis of cancer forced her to give up her ferrets. At 63 years of age, she leaves a daughter, a son and 3 grandchildren. We like to think that she is happily playing with all her many beautiful ferrets that preceded her at the Rainbow Bridge.
|
Helen E. Tarbert (1924 - 2018):
Dedication to a Black-footed ferret supporter  Helen E. Tarbert (1924-2018)
photo: Frederick News Post
Helen E. Tarbert, age 93 of Sykesville, Maryland passed away on Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at Oakland Manor Nursing Center. Born November 7, 1924, in Baltimore, MD, Helen worked as a librarian for many years for the Enoch Pratt Library and Baltimore City School System. From the 1960’s until well into the 1990’s, she was very active in the peace movement and in civil rights issues in Maryland.
Beyond her interest as a social justice warrior, Helen was an avid animal lover. Her constant pets were domestic ferrets, which traveled with her to many events, as well as cats and pygmy goats. A long-time member of the Baltimore Ferret Club and the America Ferret Association, she championed the severely endangered black-footed ferret. She actively supported the national species survival program, participating in meetings and workshops with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sierra Club. At one workshop in the 1990’s she traveled to the Colorado BFF breeding program, witnessing the preconditioning of young captive-bred BFFs for their eventual release back to the wild. For several decades Helen continued to collect and disseminate information to the public about the BFF program, writing articles on the status of the BFF recovery, and soliciting donations for the various nonprofit organizations who supported the cause. In 2009, at 84-years of age she spoke to the Frederick News-Post who quoted her as saying: "I don't think there is a certain age when you should stop doing the things you are interested in doing.” ---And she never did. Ms. Tarbert will be missed by the ferret-world and beyond. 
|
Nancy's Philosophy: Our belief regarding all animals
So many times we see the way ferrets and animals in general are treated as "just an animal". We believe animals feel and think. They have their own cultures, their own way of doing things, can feel pain and grief and sadness and joy. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. If an animal does something you do not understand, step back and ask yourself " what is the animal trying to convey and am I looking at it by way of me as a human or by their own thoughts as who they are". The following quote is one of the best on this subject and says it all.........
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by Man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." -- Henry Beston, naturalist & writer
[From: ferretownUSA.com]
So many times we see the way ferrets and animals in general are treated as "just an animal". We believe animals feel and think. They have their own cultures, their own way of doing things, can feel pain and grief and sadness and joy. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. If an animal does something you do not understand, step back and ask yourself " what is the animal trying to convey and am I looking at it by way of me as a human or by their own thoughts as who they are". The following quote is one of the best on this subject and says it all.........
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by Man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." -- Henry Beston, naturalist & writer
[From: ferretownUSA.com]
People Helping FerretsFerrets who need your help: How to Report Abuse
Ferrets Helping People: Ferrets as Service Animals and Therapy Pets |
