Mustelid Madness is a small educational program located in Northern WY. In 2021, we will also be expanding to become a small rescue for ferrets and several displaced domestic fur farm mink. Please note that we are not an official nonprofit, which means that any donations made are not currently tax deductible. Filing to become a nonprofit is something that we may work on in the future, though it is a time consuming and costly endeavor. Our goal is to file for nonprofit status by 2024 (hopefully much sooner!).
Mustelid Madness Projects:
Raising awareness about the benefits of co-existing with wildlife, and encouraging safe non-lethal methods for resolving urban wildlife issues.
Mink Rescue Project 2021- we have obtained state licensing which will allow us to intake several displaced fur farm ink in 2021. We will vet, socialize, evaluate, and adopt them out to licensed, knowledgeable forever homes, or we will provide life long sanctuary at our facility.
Encouraging responsible pet ownership and encouraging improvements in average pet husbandry in a judgement-free environment.
Offeringg rescue & adoption services for domestic ferrets (as space allows).
Providing fun free educational activity packets for children in the community, including nature-based crafts, fact sheets for learning about local wildlife, coloring sheets, etc. We provided these packets to children in our community during the pandemic shut down in spring 2020, and hope to make them available for free during regular school breaks such as winter break, spring break, and summer time.
Raising awareness about and encouraging an interest in the mustelid family of animals, particularly species native to north America.
Our Mission: “The mission of Mustelid Madness is to help give ferrets and rescued domestic mink a new life, to raise public awareness about the mink farming industry in the US, to raise awareness about coexistence with wildlife, and to encourage responsible pet ownership.”
Our Vision: Striving for a world in which more of the general public becomes passionate about wildlife coexistence, animal welfare, and responsible pet ownership.
Our Core Values:
Animal Welfare: Providing excellent animal welfare for all animals in our care is Mustelid Madness’s number one core value. We commit to providing species appropriate environment, enrichment, diet, and veterinary care for every animal that comes through the rescue or becomes a permanent resident, with the goal of setting them up to live their best lives. We will work to ensure that every animal is properly evaluated to meet their individual needs, and to ensure that they are living a stress-free and pain-free existence. We commit to always acting in the best interest of the animal, regardless of personal sentiment, which may include the right to humane euthanasia for animals that live with chronic/debilitating pain or for mink which are permanently stressed by life in captivity. We want every animal that comes into our care to get the best possible chance at a wonderful life, and for those we cannot save, we want to provide a humane and peaceful end.
Education: We commit to educating the public about the care needs of ferrets and domestic mink, about responsible pet ownership, about the mink farming industry in the US, and about a range of issues related to wildlife. We commit to encouraging an interest in learning about and protecting our native wildlife and the ecosystem. Our educational goal is to work to increase awareness of how to coexist with wildlife, while at the same time correcting myths and misinformation. Our educational material will be based on science, conservation, personal experience, and modern animal welfare ethics.
Responsibility: As an organization committed to finding homes for rescued ranch mink and pet ferrets, we commit to taking this responsibility extremely seriously. Mink are a wonderful species, but are challenging and powerful, and not a suitable animal for most homes. Ferrets are a more common and more suitable household pet, but are still reasonably challenging to own. We commit to carefully screening all potential homes prior to placement to ensure that each home is a good fit for the individual animal. We will require an application and an adoption contract for each animal, and every animal will be microchipped and vet checked. Mustelid Madness will provide extensive care information and informational support for the life of the animal, and will commit to taking back any adopted animal should the owner no longer be able to care for it. Every animal that comes through the rescue will have a safety net for life. We also commit to ensuring (to the furthest extent within our power) that all of our adopters follow their state licensing laws where applicable. Mink will only be adopted out to fully licensed educational facilities and/or sanctuaries.
Professionalism: We commit to conducting our organization and ourselves in a professional and respectful manner. We pledge to work side by side with other like-minded organizations for the good of our overall goals. We commit to following all state and federal laws and licensing requirements and to treat all governing agencies that we answer to with respect, including but not limited to the WY G&F Department and the USDA. Regardless of our personal views about mink farming, we will never commit, encourage, or condone attacks or harassment on fur farmers. We pledge to treat all individuals, organizations, applicants, etc with professionalism.
Transparency: We commit to keeping detailed records of our finances, our activities, and our animals in care, and to making those records available to the public upon request as we work towards becoming an official nonprofit. We will strive to work for our supporters and for our community. The projects that Mustelid Madness works on are only possible thanks to the support of the public, and we intend to honor that support by keeping our followers informed and by welcoming their questions and engagement in our activities.No