I am not attempting to contribute to the debate, just tired of hearing the
possibility of someone purposely misrepresenting their ferrets as Marshall
ferrets discounted.  I am the owner of such a ferret.  The ferret is a
silver, not something seen much out of Marshall at that time 7+ years ago.
She had non-dissolving spay stitches in her belly.  She was tattooed with
something resembling a letter "Y" or possibly a "T" in one ear.  Her
temperment was very different from that of most Marshall's.  She came with
a Marshall guarantee card, green at that time, and exactly like one I
gotten with my first ferret (who WAS a Marshall) and one that a former
owner of my third ferret gave us when we rescued her from him (he was
proud of her "pedigree" though he hated her, so he'd kept the papers).
The problem was, I believe, at the distributor, as the distributor also
sent along some of their own paperwork with the ferrets.  This distributor
was one folks local to me saw various problems from a number of times, and
at that time distributed to most of the local pet stores.  I later had a
discussion with the store owner about the ferret and my concerns about
her and her mismatched papers.  At that time I was told that the ferrets
originated out of Canada from a smaller breeder.  I don't know the name of
the breeder.  I wish I did, simply because Sierra has been the healthiest
ferret I've ever owned, she is lean and muscular, beautiful to look at,
and her only problems were an early tendency to nip more than the
Marshall's I'd had and to occassionally eat the inedible (no surgeries,
thank goodness).  So in this case the distibutor had sold the ferrets as
Marshall's out of Canada, with Marshall guarantees.  The store owner
seemed genuinely surprised.  I did contact Marshall's at that time and
they took such info as I could provide.
 
So there you go... the "fakes" I've seen or heard of in the state have not
always extended to actual faked marks, rather outright misrepresentation,
but there have been a few of the others as well, and those are just ones
I've had contact with.  I can't say how widespread the problem is, but I
can say it existed/exists.
 
Debra in Fort Worth
[Posted in FML issue 3631]