Woman with home full of ferrets says she was running shelter

VIRGINIA BEACH

The woman whose home, barn and garage were crammed with more than 200 ferrets and carcasses said Wednesday that she was running a ferret rescue shelter that got out of control.

Authorities on Wednesday charged Elaine Carole McCraig of the 200 block of North Lynnhaven Road with a single count of animal cruelty after they removed more than 100 ferrets and nearly an equal number of dead animals from her property the day before.

McCraig, director of Ferret Rescue of Tidewater Inc., said she got sick - developing diabetes, severe tendonitis and heart problems - about a year ago and had fallen behind with her animal care.

"The biggest mistake I've made is that I haven't asked my friends for help," she said in a telephone interview.

"I hated to call anyone else. I was sure I was going to feel better."

McCraig, 59, said she had already quit taking in some of the animals and had been planning to put some of them up for adoption.

She said she was not a ferret breeder and hadn't hurt any of the animals.

Authorities reported that they found 92 frozen carcasses on her property.

McCraig, who said she quit her job as a veterinarian technician and nurse to care for ferrets, explained that people brought their dead pets to her to be cremated. She said she stored them in freezers because they are cheaper to cremate if she takes them in bulk.

National ferret caregivers from as far away as Nevada came to McCraig's defense Wednesday.

Vickie McKimmey, director of shows and special events for the American Ferret Association Inc., a Maryland-based association, said she knew McCraig as someone who took in ferrets that local shelters wouldn't accept.

"She spent thousands and thousands and thousands of her own dollars to care for these old and sick animals that folks so freely dumped," Mc-Kimmey wrote in an e-mail.

Ferrets are high-maintenance animals, and people who get them don't realize how much care they require, said Teresa Lamarche, community outreach director of the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has 21 of the ferrets removed from McCraig's property up for adoption.

The Beach SPCA normally does not accept ferrets, Lamarche said.

Penny Hendrix, president of the Ferret Association, said that owners quickly discover there are few places willing to take their unwanted animals.

Ferrets can't be released into the wild, she said, because they are domestic animals and most will die within a week if turned loose.

Caregivers sometimes get overwhelmed once they start accepting the animals, she said.

"The biggest problem with home-based ferret shelters is that the shelter moms and dads are human," she wrote in an e-mail. "In reality, they are all only one illness, family crisis or accident away from becoming a headline."

Authorities found more than 100 ferrets, a dog, a bird and three cats on McCraig's property. Most of the animals were suffering from dehydration

and malnutrition, police said.

Carcasses of a rat, cat, otter and 89 ferrets were found in freezers.

Sixty-one of the rescued ferrets had to be euthanized because of their poor health, authorities said, and more than 15 are in Animal Control custody.

There is no limit to the number of ferrets someone is permitted to own in Virginia Beach, but they have to be properly maintained, police said.

Jennifer Jiggetts, (757) 222-5104, jennifer.jiggetts@pilotonline.com