>For the past 6 years we've not seen any "faked" MF ferrets, but just this
>week I took in 5 young ferrets who may very well be "fakes".  Their ear
>tattoos are two dots, but they're in the wrong position, are larger and in
>the wrong direction.  The ink also appears as though it has "run," so that
>the tattoos look blurred or like larger than usual dots.  Is this what the
>"fakes" look like?
 
From what i have read it depends on who created the fakes; some didn't
even have tats or drawn-on fake-tats (which it sounds like you have
encountered), just fake papers.  MF is NOT the only place that has had
disreputable distributors and back-yard breeders (the ferret equivalent
of puppy mills) do this to them.  For a few years on and off there
have been some quite in-bred and/or diseased, sickly creatures, and
behaviorally-challenged fur fitch passed off as coming from several places
that had nothing to do with them from what I have been told.  Gather that
happens to cat, dog and other animal breeders and farms, too.  Guess it
will come down to breeders and farms which sell to stores having to put
WHICH stores they sell to on their websites with a note about having
regular updates on a certain time-frame.
[Posted in FML issue 3532]