These are in between facilities. Animals are bought from breeders at
young ages (yes, ferrets too) and kept until they're old enough to be
brought to retail stores.

My friend worked at one called Wolverton in Lansing, MI. Often I would
hear from her that a little baby ferret died. I was angry, asking her
why they could not have called me, but of course, that's not their
policy. No vet care. They are just $$ to them, not $$$$$ so who cares,
right?

They raise all sorts of animals. People often think that Petsmart and
Petco get their animals straight from the breeder but that's not true
100% of the time. They are halfway points - if Petco needs a few more
then they come from a few miles away as opposed to all the way from
Marshall Farms.

I hope the USDA shuts down the place in the news, however, this country
has a LONG way to go (the USA, sorry to assume FML is all USA readers)
before we can consider ourselves "cruelty-free" and "enlightened". So I
don't think they will be.

There needs to be an animal rights task force whose sole purpose is
to make sure things like this do not happen. It does not help that
PETA has founders that have radical ideals (animals should not sit in
shelters, and should be put to sleep instead; animals should not be
pets, etc). A lot of people just go with PETA for the animals, and
don't know that; then when that was outed, many people stopped
supporting PETA, and it gave the PETA opposition more ammunition. But
they really do "try". Their undercover work is great. But, again, with
no one in power doing anything, people will get away with this kind of
crap over and over.

Of course, people use the argument "there are no kid police". But guess
what, yes, there are. It's called CPS and cops. They can't police every
single family 100% of the time but that is what police and CPS are for,
and the courts. However, there are far fewer animal facilities like
this, and it is possible to control them. What do animals have? The
USDA? What a joke. There needs to be something else that can be done.
This video came out. What was done? Probably nothing. That is wrong in
2008, and has been wrong for at least the last 20 years in much of the
public eye, but yet, where are the new laws? Jail sentences for animal
abusers? Strictly enforced operational guidelines for these facilities?
Penalties and fines are obviously not enough. Inspections are not
enough. We need more.

For every ferret you have ever seen, a thousand have passed away
starved, sick, or beaten in either a breeder or a halfway facility.
Until we do something about it forcing legislators to come up with a
solution, it will continue to be that way.

Laryssa

[Posted in FML 5862]