One of the reasons the 8 week age was chosen is because it IS so easy to
confirm.  That is when the conical canines have erupted to replace the
needlelike baby canines, and the first molars erupt about the same time.
It is a really quick thing to check and it is reliable.
 
APHIS already does inspections and accepts complaints.  Going with an
8 week age and using that reliable age marker puts some teeth into
enforcement if you will forgive a bad pun.
 
Yes, it is obvious that even though this has been written about before
many will need reminders.  Yes, also, no agency can cover all the bases
one would like covered.  having standards, though, allows action to
be taken, and let's face it: any breeder large enough to need to be
registered with the USDA is not going to want to have a lot of bad
things show up.  Those are the people who are breeding for money.
Losing the ability to do so is something they want to avoid.
 
Nothing is perfect and nothing will ever be perfect; but some
advances are a huge amount better than what went before, and getting
ferret-specific standards at APHIS is among those types of progress.
All it takes for most here is having ferret people actually love ferrets
enough to let APHIS know, because other ferret people cared enough to do
all the ground work needed to get to this point where a letter could make
a real difference.
[Posted in FML issue 5022]