I believe the Word Police comment is for me, so I will let the rest
of the list in on the conversation. I sent Kim an email attempting to
explain to her that her aggressive and hostile form of posting might
be off-putting to some people and that just presenting her opinions
as opinions and facts as facts more clearly might be more productive.
My email contained no attacks on Kim personally, just constructive
criticism of her posting style. I did not post it on the list because I
didn't want to make her feel bad. I was trying to point out that small
changes in her posting style might make a difference in the way people
viewed her posts.

The response I got, while attempting to be informative, contains
several personal attacks and name calling. Plus, she decided she
needed to post another nasty rant on the FML.

Who's really trying to be the "Gestapo" here?

My email to Kim:

While I understand you are on a mission, you should be more careful how
you word your posts. You tend to be very judgmental and to present your
opinions as fact. Everything is relative. Perhaps you believe your
feeding style is optimal and perhaps it is optimal for you and your
ferrets, but that does not make other people who don't adopt your
feeding style neglectful or uncaring.

The way your word your posts makes it sound like that is what you are
saying.

This statement, for example, is nitpicking, unnecessary, and critical:

"Your ferret is NOT on a Natural diet if it still has access to kibble
and cooked or processed foods."

It will immediately offend and annoy anyone who reads it with a
different opinion.

While I think you believe optimal ferret health can only be reached if
one is doing it your way, you really don't have any basis in fact, just
your own experience. Other people might have ferrets in optimal health
and don't do it your way.

As for the bone thing, raw bones can and do splinter. You are incorrect
in the statement:

Raw bones are actually soft and bendy, ferrets will easily chew and
crunch these raw bones with no problems of splinters.

If that were the case, then every broken bone of every uncooked mammal
would be a clean break with no splintering, and that is simply not the
case.

Your dental health argument is specious and I think you know that.
Blood type doesn't necessarily determine dental health. If that were
the case, then all ferrets fed the same would have the same dental
issues and you know that is not true.

As for the silk vs synthetic fiber argument, again, specious. There are
some fabulous synthetic fabrics and some really rough, crappy natural
cotton fabrics.

As I said, I do understand you feel you are on a mission, but as my
Momma says "You get more flies with honey than with vinegar." Telling
people they are wrong and preaching at them will generally get you
nowhere. Kindness and helpfulness will get you much further if you are
hoping to do any good at all and not just wanting to rant for the sake
of ranting.

Good luck.

[Posted in FML 6239]