Okay, first I would like to say that I've looked at all the pelts, skull,
and other ferret like taxidermy products on ebay.  I have nothing against
them, yea i am not a fan of most taxidermy, and i felt that one of the
ferret pelts wasn't done very well, but I still don't have anything
against them.  Especially the skull.  All they made me think of were
old fashion styles and a good biology class.
 
The mink stole might end up with a collector who strives to keep examples
of how fashion used to be.  That skull and pelt might just end up in some
biology class.Which I think would be very cool.  Frankly, I wouldn't mind
having a couple skulls to see the difference between the animals.  Okay,
that might not be your thing.  That's fine.  But I don't think it's fine
when a lot of people throw a hissy fit about ferret parts on ebay.
Everytime one comes up a lot of people write Ebay and the seller to get
it removed, yet do you do that when a rabbit pelt comes up?  How about a
bird skull?  Do you write to ebay to have them remove the auction for the
turtle shell?  How about for the fisher, racoon, lizard, or even HUMAN
skulls that come up?  (yes there are Human skulls on ebay!) Do a search
on "Real Skulls" and there's pages of them!  Even a cat!  There's also
pages of pelts, everything from mink to cayote to mice.  Anything you can
think of.  Alot of the stuff is scientific, medical, or native american.
I haven't heard anyone throwing fits over any other animals.
 
Yes i realize this is a ferret list, yet no one has said.  I can't
believe ebay allows the sale of animal pelts/skulls.  I write to all the
sellers of all pelts.  here's a ferret pelt that everyone else might
think is horrible!  But, it's not right to protest the sale of a ferret
skull and not a mink skull, fox skull, dog skull, etc.  and it's not
right to write to the sellers and demand they remove their product (you
know they actually lose the money they paid to post the auction..  i
think) If you don't believe it's right to sell skulls on ebay, write to
ebay and tell them so, but don't protest any one skull imparticular,
unless it says something like "this animal was violently killed for it's
skull" then by all means go ahead and bombard the place.  But these
skulls are skulls that will probably end up in someone science classroom!
Has anyone here ever taken a bio class or any class where you studied
skeletons or skulls or pelts?  Where do you think the teacher got that
stuff?  I bet plenty of teachers get them off ebay!  What about nature
centers who teach about different animals?  I work personally with a
nature center, and I know most if not all of their animal part came from
the game commission, but I'm sure there's plenty of places out there that
buy their skulls and what knot.  Ebay is a wonderful resource for all
people, taxadermists and scientists included.  Skulls and pelts etc.
belong on ebay.
 
If you don't like ferret parts imparticular, exclude them from your
search.  (go into advance search and exclude the words "skull" and
"pelt") If you don't believe that selling any skulls is right then write
to ebay, don't single one thing out.  The fact that you find one animal
part more disturbing than another because it's your favorite animal or
you had one as a pet doesn't mean that selling that one particular animal
part is wrong.  If you honestly don't think that ANY animal part should
be sold then go ahead and write, but if it's just ferrets, that's not
something that should dictate the way things are sold on ebay.  It's like
eating meat, if you don't like a particular kind of meat, don't eat it.
If you think eating ALL meat is wrong, become a veggitarian and promote
your cause.  You wouldn't try to get one particular kind of meat taken
off the market because you didn't like the taste, would you?  Now, if the
meat you didn't like was, say, veal that was cruelly raised then yes you
would try to take it off the market, but take the analogy to ebay.... you
don't like ferret parts.... but yet you don't mind other animal parts,
sounds like not liking one kind of meat....well..  the ferret part is
like veal you say..  where's the proof?  what proof do you have that the
ferret was cruelly killed?  none, for all you know the ferret could have
died from adrenal, or died in surgery.  If you only want the ferret part
taken off of ebay because you find it a bit gross, please don't bombard
the seller or ebay with letters.  But that's just my two cents.  If
anyone agrees, okay.  If you disagree, that's your oppinon.  I don't
want to fight about it.
 
Have a wonderfully dooky day!!
 
- Jules
[Posted in FML issue 4756]