>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Substantiation on claims concerning Marshall Farms research
>There are a few of us that are confused concerning writings on the FML..
>Over the last few years, it has been written on the FML that the research
>done by Marshall Farms has given us so much info on ferrets?  We cannot
>find any indication on the web that the puppy mill does ANY research.
 
Marshall Farms is *NOT* a puppy mill.  Nor a ferret mill.  They do NOT
practice cruel and inhumane housing of pets.  THey provide nutritious
food.  They provide veterinary care.  They are in this for the long
haul.
 
So the ones confused are those who do not understand what a puppy mill
really is.  IN the ferret world the term back yard breeder is more or
less the same as a puppy mill.
 
>There is plenty of documentation of the terrible conditions there.
 
Please point it out.  We have not seen documentation on the web.  Only
accusations that allude to documentation.
 
Your description is inflammatory and defamatory.  You are maliciously
spreading from all accounts untruths that are spread intending to hurt the
livelihood of a legitimate business.  Marshall has never taken anyone to
court but that might change.
 
>As people on the FML appear to be writing about the good research done by
>Marshall Farms
 
Read the Fox book - "Biology and Diseases of the Ferret".  Although often
unnamed much of the research in that book was done by Marshall Farms as
part of the process of being a modern and productive agricultural business.
Much of the medical research was done using ferrets obtained from Marshall
Farms.  There is way too much in there to copy into the FML.
 
>I think it is important that we fully understand what this puppy mill does
>if we are going to write to Congress and not look silly or frivolous.
 
It would behoove people not to refer to Marshall Farms as a puppy mill if
you wish to be taken seriously by the government.
 
>If they are just selling hundreds of thousands of ferrets and Beagels for
>research on things like toxicolgy, which is what I read in one of the
>articles--pouring toxic substances on them or in them-....... That is
>completely different than performing valuable research.
 
You seem to have a lot of catching up to do on what is really going on.
 
Reduce those numbers of ferrets to less than ten thousand per year if the
numbers posted by the most zealous though also among the most informed of
the Marshall bashers are correct.
 
Marshall does not perform toxicology research.  Marshall provides the
animals used in research.  It is considered valuable information in the
scientific field to do toxicology studies.  We are all safer because of
them.
 
>Where are their research facilities?
 
First straighten out in your mind that there are two types of research
involved.  Marshall's research facilities for their internal studies on
the husbandry of ferrets is their entire farm.  They do not do the
independent medical research that seems to be what you are referring to.
 
>My posts had nothing to do with research, but with the conditions at the
>puppy mill
 
Your posts have had to do with imagined conditions at a modern
agri-business.  By all accounts we have heard they are far from accurate.
Perhaps Marshall will eventually let us visit their facility so we can
give a first hand report, but those second reports we have heard are all
noncontradictory despite their being unconnected to each other yet
drastically differing from your descriptions.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3178]