The two major sources of the ferret for most of the would-be ferret
patronizers are:
 
1.) Commercial ferret breeders
 
2.) Non-commercial ferret breeders
 
??Querry??  From which source, 1.) or 2.) are the vast majority of
ferrets purchased?
 
//Answer// If you picked 1.) -Commercial- you are not wrong.  But being
not wrong may not be the same thing as being "right".
 
??Querry??  I don't get it; if I'm not wrong ain't that same as being
right?
 
//Answer// Nope, it ain't.  Especially if you equate "right" as being
morally befriending to the lowly ferret.  Morally befriending?  So, what
to do here; what's the point?  Am I supposed to assume that a pet ferret
can be im-morally befriended?
 
//Answer// Yep.  Some folks who've been on the ferret "merry-go-round"
for a long time and have had the rotten luck to have paid thousands of
dollars to fatten the pockets of veterinarians (curative surgery
excisions to whack away at cancers) in the mostly hopeless and futile
effort to "cure" their beloved ferret, are at last questioning the "good
sense" of buying a commercial grade ferret.
 
??Querry??  You make it sound as though the commercial grade ferret is
basically defective and for the most part may be lacking even a minimal
immune system, since some 70 percent of these ferrets will develop some
form of cancer within their first four years of life; is this what you
believe?  - that only 30 percent will survive cancer-free but will die
anyhow at an early age?
 
//Answer//  Well, all that I believe is not necessarily factual.  I
can't prove the 70/30 percent cancer rate in commercial ferrets - nobody
can do that today, since data collection is fragmentary at best.
 
??Querry??  Is it indeed factual that the largest commercial ferret
production company got its start by breeding ferrets only for the animal
testing, medical science experimentation, and the proofing of cleaning
products?
 
//Answer// Indeed that is true.  These ferrets are bred to be as uniform
as possible (heavily inbred) and their life expectancy is less than a
year, in some cases dying only hours after being asphxsiated by student
nurses attempting to insert trachael tubes down ferrets' throats.  These
unfortunate creatures are not intended to be pets but instead intended to
be merely a research vehicle that is classed as a "consumable".
 
??Querry??  Is it true that this same ferret production company now sells
about half of its production to pet stores?
 
//Answer??  Yes.  This is freely admitted by the company.
 
??Querry??  Did you ever buy one of these consumable ferrets?
 
//Answer// Yes.  I was too stupid to know the difference.
 
??Querry??  What difference?
 
//Answer// The tragic difference of not being smart enough to buy my
ferret from a private, knowledgable ferret breeder rather than from the
pet store or even a ferret shelter.
 
??Querry??  Not even a ferret shelter?  What's wrong with ferrets in a
shelter?
 
//Answer// Please, just ask yourself: Where do the shelter ferrets come
from?  Are 99.999(?) percent of these shelter ferrets originally from
the commercial production ferret mills?  Most surely they are.
 
!!!Summary!!!  If you want the best quality, healthiest and longest
lived ferret possible, get your ferret from a knowledgable, honest and
trustworthy breeder of ferrets.  Remember: it's compassion over hedonism
every time.
 
Edward Lipinski, Director of Ferrets North West Foundation.
[Posted in FML issue 3869]