Dear Ferret Folks-

In the last few days I think what we've managed to accomplish with the
whole Doug McKay business is to demonstrate how extremely unpleasant we
can be as a group when we want to be. I've seen vicious, hate-filled
posts aimed at the whole McKay family in general, and at one-another
specifically. The only person in this whole mess with a lick of sense
at all seems to be Doug McKay, who realizes on some level that he can't
really take care of his animals anymore. He picked up the phone and
tried to start solving the problem, but I think the problem is actually
just too big for a quick fix, like he had in mind. He's really got two
problems. He can't give the animals the care they need, and he and his
family have to *eat*. You can't *eat* ethics. It's a mighty slim meal.

I think that is what Bill Killian was trying to point out, but Bill
Killian, while he *often* has good points to make, seems to have
problems with his volume control knob. It seems to be stuck on "10",
when a more neighbourly four to six would do fine, win over more
friends and enemies. But that just isn't his way. Whenever he posts
to the FML everyone who has ever felt his wrath seems to come out of
the woodwork, still stinging from the ordeal.

I have to agree with some of the things he said about one of the
affidavits on the Doug McKay Rescue Foundation Site. The writer was
upset that there were piles of junk on the property. That there was an
abandoned trailer on the property. That there was a sheet of ice on the
ground, caused because the McKay's had a pipe problem. It was easier
to leave the water running at a trickle than it was to fix the system
right. (For easier, read cheaper.) The McKays are poor farmers, and
like a lot of people who live in poverty, they will fight like hell
rather than part with anything that "might be fixable someday" , "might
be valuable" , "is perfectly good!" You hear all these excuses from
my brethren out here in New England, the "Junk Yankees". There were
probably some abandoned cars behind some brush that the affidavit
writer simply didn't see.

Now, none of this precludes people from owning or breeding ferrets,
does it? Poverty isn't a *crime* is it? Is there anyone on the FML with
an abandoned trailer? Anyone on the FML with junk on their property?
This is a *class* issue, and this is what Bill Killian was saying in
the, um...least tactful way possible. I've *been* a poor farmer during
one of my many incarnations, and I will never forget the way Yuppies
would look at me. But we are not going to solve that on the FML.

And pictures? I guarantee you I could go to *any* dairy farm of your
choice, take ten photos of my choice, and after you have seen them,
you will never eat cheesecake again. But we are not going to solve
that on the FML.

After the pettiness, mud-slinging, name-calling, bickering, and
eye-gouging I've seen over the last week here, I'm very glad that
the Mcay Ferrets are out of our collective hands.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 5544]