Hi Kris Aaron; , et.al.
 
Unfortunately, a freedom of information act inquiry disclosed that Marshall
Farms last year sold some 89,000 ferrets, over 10,000 of which went to labs.
They do a lot of neurological experiments since they are prone to seizures.
Yes, some of them are undoubtedly painful.
 
The thing that gripes my soul the most of their (MF) practices, is the
killing of their mother ferrets at 30 months of age as they are "not
productive enough to keep." They won't give them away, as that would "dilute
the profits", in the spirit of a true business for profit only enterprise
with no soul or morals, nor connection to "our brothers the animals" as
Chief Crazy Horse would say.  Their only concession to this is they gave
some of the "doomed" ferrets to rabies and /or ECE research.
 
Other criticisms I've heard about them is the practice of much too early
neutering, and de-scenting.  De-scenting in general last year was ruled
"mutilation, to be done only save the ferret from harm in cases of diseases,
under penalty of law" by a couple of European countries.  It seems we in the
US are falling behind in a lot of areas compared to other countries.
 
If some business person feels the urge to flame me for this, don't bother, I
will not respond.  I feel that people who inquire need to know that a lot of
horrible things are being done.  Not too many years ago GM was using ferrets
in crash tests, after the technical dummies were invented to gather data.  I
wrote the chairman about that one, but never received a reply.  Our best
weapon is the vote of the dollar against things we object to.
 
I'll stop mow as thinking too much of this really gets me sick to my stomach.
 
Take care,
 
                 Gary & the gang of fur ->
 
        Thru joining, their grief has been transmuted to joy,
 
        loneliness to celebration...
 
        ..Data, in "The Tin Man" episode, STNG.
[Posted in FML issue 1666]