A veterinary technician fired for protesting an
ill-fated plan for releasing black-footed ferrets into Badlands
National Park in South Dakota now wants to start her own care
facility for geriatric or neglected ferrets. Carolyn Kinsey was
hired to manage a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “conditioning”
facility in Pueblo, Colo., for ferrets soon to be released into the
wild. But upon receiving 27 ferrets from different zoos across the
country, she noticed their advanced age and poor condition. Ferrets
can live up to a decade, but after age 5 they begin to lose their
eyesight, teeth and capacity to hunt. Kinsey protested the Fish and
Wildlife’s reintroduction plan, predicting high if not total
fatalities. Though only a volunteer, she was asked to leave the
project before the release. Her co-worker Andy Abate, a biology
technician with the National Biological Service, then resigned in
protest. “They acted like Nazi Germans when they came down here and
demanded Carolyn pack up and leave,” Abate told The Rocky Mountain
News. Abate says he and Kinsey knew there would be repercussions
but spoke up anyway. “I feel there is an ethical question here,
because those ferrets just aren’t going to survive and it’s just a
dumping exercise,” he said. They were right: Coyotes killed the
ferrets days after their release in South Dakota. The agency has
since admitted it erred but defended the program. “We had to lose
them in order to learn,” Dean Biggins of the USFWS told The Denver
Post. Carolyn Kinsey put it another way: “Government is bullheaded
and life is cheap.” Kinsey is now seeking funding to operate her
ferret care facility in Pueblo.
“Shea
Andersen
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline She fights for ferrets.
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