Hi Everybody...
 
Any multimillion dollar corporation that deals with government inspection of
any kind knows when the inspectors are coming [they make appointments] and
they know the applicable codes and reg.s inside and out..  Now for a
corporation that has a very good inspection record for years suddenly fails
the annual inspection of it's facility three years running something has to
have radically changed!
 
Take into account that those inspectors are also routinely inspecting other
facilities engaged in the same business and where living creatures are
concerned these outsiders pose a very real biological hazard [they cannot be
forced to observe the same strict processing in procedures required of
employees] it is further indication of something very peculiar going on.
 
One may entertain the theory that the entire corporate staff from Board of
Directors to grounds keepers have all suddenly been afflicted with total
memory loss of all codes and reg.s required by the inspecting agency and
also have forgotten the date of the inspection..  or that the Owners have
decided to commit corporate suicide by ignoring the clearly spelled out
government regulations that govern their ability to continue conducting
business of any kind [these inspectors can shut any facility down instantly
for code violations], or some similar scenario..  or perhaps it is more
logical and far more reasonable to ask 'Who do you suppose Pisse* Off the
Inspecting agency or one of its power people!??'
 
When that corporation has a strictly 'closed' breeding facility it is
completely irrational to believe they would deliberately do anything at any
time that would create a situation where possible carriers of such diseases
as ECE would have what amounts to a revolving door in and out of that
facility hugely multiplying the danger of infection to their carefully
guarded breed stock.  Such a disease getting loose within such an operation
would rapidly have that corporation appearing in the bankruptcy courts!
 
Now it is remotely possible that one discontented employee might manage to
insert a violation at the last minute somewhere in an inspection and not
have it caught and corrected by the time the inspectors reached that point
in the inspection..  a minute as that possibility is, it is still possible..
but multiple violations not one year but three straight years??  The odds
against that are astronomical!!
 
So let's all use just a little common sense when viewing this sudden three
year total change of inspection records and look beyond 'corporate sudden
onset insanity' to a far more likely and mundane cause.  Simple human
vindictiveness.
 
 ***************
 
Within our society rapid changes are the order of the day.  We are exposed,
through contaminants in our food and water, preservatives, and the
mushrooming use of pesticides [it's estimated each person in the U S is
exposed to traces of pesticides between 6 and over 100 times every single
day], among many other sources, to carcinogenics in an unprecedented
barrage.  The incidence of cancer in many forms has been on the rise and a
cause of increasing concern for many years.  The effects of these death
dealing substances also cause such health risks as radically reduced immune
response, respiratory disease, many blood disorders and the list goes on.
 
Through vastly increased medical advances and the development of thousands
of new drugs humanity is managing to treat a many of these deadly conditions
as it can.  But they are still increasing completely out of control.  This
trend toward contaminant induced physical abnormalities is seen in every
living thing in our lives from house plants to humans.
 
A simple trip to the library and a few hours research easily gives the
interested person a clear picture of what is happening and it is very easy
to see where we are heading in the future.
 
So let's all use a little common sense.  To propose that a huge corporation,
that depends on the quality of the animals it raises for sale to the public
for its very existence, would deliberately incorporate known breeding
policies, such as inbreeding, guaranteed to cause a propensity toward
physical conditions such as cancer and significantly shortened life spans is
completely ridiculous.  So instead of looking for such suicidal behaviour in
a corporation that has had consistent growth over many years with not a
single shred of proof of impropriety perhaps it is more reasonable and
intelligent to look to the environmental introduction of thousands of
chemicals known to cause these very conditions in all living things, from
plants to humans.
 
[not to mention the direct link between photo-periods and some cancers in
ferrets - see posts on this subject by Bob Church]
 
I a person wants to know what a corporation uses it's income for in
considerable detail all one has to do is request the detailed financial
report for that corporation for any given year.  A study of those very
educational documents over a period of, let's say ten years, will give the
curious questioner a clear picture of what that corporation has been doing
over a significant period of time.  That includes the percent of the
corporate income used to expand the gene pool of the breeding stock used in
the breeding programs, among other things.
 
Abuse of breed stock is the practice of the 'back yard breeder' or the
'animal mills', it definitely is NOT the way large breeding facilities
behave toward the animals that are its 'bread and butter'.  To provide less
that optimum nutrition, absolute cleanliness, contaminant free air, and the
best medical care available is to reduce litter size, and will cut the
breeding life of the females markedly.  Overbreeding and related matings are
practices that will be guaranteed to destroy the quality of the offspring
and reduce the number of animals the corporation will be able to market.
This is not how large facilities experience rapid and consistent growth with
a demand for the animals they produce always in excess of the numbers they
have available for sale.
 
So let's use a little common sense.  When accusations of misbehaviour are
levelled toward a corporation that are completely in opposition to simple
common sense it behooves the listener/reader to very seriously question the
source of those charges.
 
It is long past time for the ferret owning population to devote its energies
to the responsible discovery, and diligent correction, of the elements that
are causing increased illness and reduced life spans in our beloved
ferrets... and stop mindlesly replying to every ferret health concern with
the outraged screech...
 
              'IT'S ALL MARSHALL FARMS FAULT!'
 
 dayna and the Woozles....
 "Resident of... Marvelous Menagerie Of Mirthful Mayhem"
 dayna frazier  102046,3162  20-Sep-1996  03:39:09 PST
[Posted in FML issue 1698]