Hi.  I, too, was kind of annoyed with the tone of these articles on the
Utah ferrets and wrote to the paper and posted to their bulletin board
online saying that while I was happy that they brought the story to light,
which may have helped in the rescue effort, I was upset that they chose to
focus so much on the issue of ferrets and "stink".  I politely informed
them that ANY animal kept in such quantities in such bad conditions in
such close quarters would generate a terrible smell, and that in general,
while ferrets do usually have a slight musky odor up close, especially
ones that have not been descented, if you keep their bedding clean and
take care of them, ferrets do not smell bad and are quite pleasant
animals.  I told them they were prejudicing the general public who may not
be familiar with ferrets against these loving, sweet, fun, smart creatures
just because one woman had too many that she didn't take care of.
 
-april
[Posted in FML issue 3544]