>Except that the ferrets do have food, water and access to shelter.

That would actually depend on the definitions used.

Examples: Does Ice qualify as water? Does one feeding a day qualify as
food? Does having a tiny wooden and wire cage with a nest box qualify
as shelter for those you aren't even in a shed? For those who are in
a shed does being without heating, air conditioning, or reasonable
shelter to separate them from animals who could attack them or share
zoonotic diseases with them count as shelter?

Under the worst possible definitions they would and do, and sadly
in many states where the fur farm agriculture mentality rules the
politicians the definitions used are the worst possible definitions.

It's time -- heck, beyond time in many locations -- to publicly
connect politicians with animal abuse at fur farms through very public
interviews in which the politicians are read descriptions of such
farms and show photos of fur farms which are publicly shared.

Ferret people need get some more humane definitions in many states.
It will take many years, but it took 10 years from start to finish of
constant work to first test rabies vaccines in ferrets, then get USDA
approval of IMRAB 3, the vaccine which worked for long enough (1 year
tested for so far) safely enough in 1990, and then get enough rabies
data in ferrets to finally get pro-ferret changes approved to the
Symposium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control at the Nov. '97
meeting of the National Associate of State Public Health Veterinarians
that protect vaccinated ferrets as much as vaccinated dogs and
vaccinated cats are protected. (Yes, the testing resulted in some
ferret deaths but fewer than just one state alone used to destroy in
a short period of time so very, very soon many more ferrets had been
saved.)

A major thing that is needed for permanent and large changes, of
course, is for enough of the people in the affected states who are
not already working their tails off on other ferret needs to step up,
contact humane professionals and learn how to really make an impact.
They'd need to be people who are in it for the long haul and have
to be success oriented rather than being interested in their own
publicity or recognition -- people willing to do a lot more work than
anyone realizes (i.e. a disposition like that of a huge number of
people working already in sheltering, or in education and information
sharing for ferrets because that is how most of those people are, for
example, how many people here other than those who have been to IFC
Symposia would recognize the FML's moderator, Bill Gruber, on the
street, or know anything much about him other than that he works his
tail off each and every day to help ferrets and ferret people and has
done so for over 15 years...).

Hey, it's for the ferrets!

Oh, and YES, I do agree with regulations and laws that prevent animal
abuses, including hoarding, but there are others that go overboard, for
example, I don't personally think that some community laws are well
designed because often the numbers of animals are set extremely low (2
to 4) and often the types of animals mentioned have not been well
researched or even researched at all.

The problem isn't the category of regulation when there is a problem,
because animal abuse is rampant so humane regulations are sorely
needed. When regulations go wrong the problem is crummy work when
creating the regulations, combined with a too silent electorate not
knowing what topics are under consideration, so the failures are on the
parts of the politicians and those hired to help and advise them, the
media who should keep the public aware of current proposed legislation,
and the people themselves who need to help guide and need to object
(preferably before a vote happens) when it's important.

Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5534]