Melissa Barnes wrote
>Currently, MF does not have enough ferrets to meet the demand, so they
>produce at high rates...
 
there are only four words in that statement that are important.
 
"to meet the demand"
 
Marshall Farms is meeting a demand.  Who demands?  Pet stores, and
ultimately, the consumer.
 
You know what?  PET STORES make demands for kits to sell to consumers.
Most want them cheap, they want them at their very cutest so they sell
the best, and they want a RELIABLE source.  If a source such as Marshall
Farms does not supply what the pet store demands of them, they will take
their business elsewhere and demand the same thing until they find a
supplier who *will*.
 
Now, before folks get up in arms, yes, there are many pet stores who do
take care of their ferrets.  Kudos to them.  But there are many many many
more who want them fast, young and cute.  Though everyone here may think
a ferret is *always* cute, there is an age at which the average consumer
will be most likely to make that impulse buy, and many stores, particularly
large chains that have commands from on high to meet quotas go for that.
 
If the business between Marshall Farms, Path Valley, or ANY of them (and
yes, I get *so* tired of hearing the focus on just one of the major
business breeders of ferrets), make the demands for the changes...send them
older, send fewer, send so they don't die in transit...then the breeders
will follow.  Period.  They want the business, they may care about ferrets
or they may not, but the bottom line is that they are a *business*.  If the
businesses they sell to tell them to start sending older kits, they will
not accept kits younger than a certain age, and *make good their demands*,
eventually they will change, and a LOT quicker than being attacked by
people with outdated information and quoting opinion articles as fact.
 
They'd have to to stay in business.
 
If people REALLY want to change things at the big breeders...change them
in the pet stores.  100 signatures, even 300 signatures on a bit of paper
means nothing when there are literally *thousands* of people who are
potential ferret-purchasers.  When the pet stores stop their demands for
a constant supply, and start demands for older and fewer kids, then things
at Marshall Farms will change.
 
But it can't just be one store.  See, they're in business too.  And if they
don't have kits in because their waiting for a shipment, or the consumer
thinks that the kits aren't quite as cute (or bite harder, are not as well
behaved, etc.  simply because they're older and not just trying to figure
out what those things call legs are), then they'll go down the street or
across town to buy one from another store.
 
So the challenge is to get *all* stores in an area to demand that WHOEVER
they get their ferrets from send fewer, send older, and send better.
 
Even better.  Educate the average consumer.  And don't spout stuff about
"puppy mills" and all that.  Educate about *ferrets*.  They're NOT like
cats and dogs, they're NOT pocket pets.  They're fiesty, their
rambunctious, they are destructive to homes not properly set up for them,
they need vet care, they need space to run around in, they need to be kept
safe from things.  But until that can happen, the REAL way to change
practices at Marshall Farms is to not attack them, but get the pet stores
in your area that sell ferrets to change the WAY *they* sell ferrets.
 
Big business breeders like Marshall Farms are, after all, meeting the
demand.
 
Sue
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[Posted in FML issue 3183]