Donna,
what you said has shocked me as I know all the same people you do and see them at shows and I do not know of anyone who would just cut off a leg with no vets visit unless it were an extreme emergency. Maybe you mis-understood a situation as I have a feeling I know who you are speaking of and she is a wonderful person who goes above and beyond for the care of a chinchilla. I myself had to do it once as it was an extreme emergency and Thumper would have died had it not been done there was no time to get to the E vet which is 3 hours away and there was a snowstorm and he was bleeeding out and I was told by a knowledgable person it needed to come of now and quickly that he had minutes not hours. He is fine and alive now.
I do not recomend it going through a vet is much more prefered but when you have an emergency you need to know what to do. I have saved several chinchillas doing things that might not be recomended and may not seem normal but work. I had a chinchilla prolapse 3 inches of his intstines came out we used honey to get them back in so we would have time to get to the vet. He is alive and well today. the vet and all the ranchers I spoke to gave him under 10% chance to live. but when you are breeding and have a lot of animals you need to know what to do in a situation
I have also seen people and know of someone that neglected a chinchilla to a horrible point brought it to a fabulous breeder sick (I saw the chinchilla about an hour after it got there), the breeder saved the chinchilla made it well again, coincedently he I believe lost a leg but was made better at the expense of said breeder...she pitched a fit got the chinchilla back and then went around bashing this breeder. but then again this same person seems to go around bashing anyone who helps her out or has anything to do with her, no one listens as she is quite the joke amoungst the ranchers and breeders now as everyone knows what she is like.
So there are always many sides to a story...........