drag this up again, but I'm starting to get really confused.
 
        It seemed that popular opinion about Marshall Farms was that they breed
primarily for research.  But now, someone posts a message and I also
recently received an e-mail from someone else stating that Marshall Farms
is primarily a Pet breeder and only 10% of their animals go to research.
What is the truth here?  If this is true, then my previous position about
not buying MF ferrets not hurting MF will have to be altered.  If 90% of
their ferrets do get sold as pets, then not buying them will make
Marshall Farms stand up and take notice.  We'd be hitting them at their
most vulnerable point.  I still think that some ferrets might suffer for
this action, but at least there's some comfort in the fact that we'd be
hitting them where it hurts.
 
        I also heard how they treat their jills (although it could all be rumor)
and that they (even though they deny it) wean and alter too early.  My
ferret would be a prime example of this.  Her age was stated to us as 8
weeks.  That means, she would have had to have been weaned at 6 weeks (as
literature has stated they are), altered, shipped and purchased by my
fiance in a two week span.  Not a lot of time given that most places
don't accept deliveries on weekends.  I'm not going to love her any less
for having had those things done to her, but maybe we can make a case
against MF that would cause them to alter their procedures so that it is
more beneficial to the animals.  I'm not an Animal Rights Activist (as my
last posted will surely attest), but if animals are being mistreated for
no other reason than that it is good business, it should be stopped.
 
        Any person who would harm and animal or human because of monetary gain,
should be stopped.  We are humans, it's about time some of us started
acting like one.
 
Again, I'm sorry for dragging this up.  Please help me to dispel my
confusion.
 
Jim Makowski
[Posted in FML issue 1072]