I just thought I'd share my one experience with the USDA.  I have mentioned
that I got my one ferret from a breeder who's conditions where substandard.
About 10 miles away from their (or any house), a long low drafty wooden
building (don't think there was any heat), no windows, a few scattered low
watt light bulbs (I was there at night and it was very hard to see).  Wire
mesh cages all around, no bedding, just breeder boxes which was where the
food got thrown in through the top of the mesh, not all had food or water
and stalagmites (or is it stalagtites?) of poop about 2 ft high under the
cages.  The food looked like rabbit pellets so I am assuming it may have
been mink food or maybe Kaytee or L&M.  I called the Michigan authorities
who told me the Michigan law was almost impossible to enforce and was very
poorly worded.  There is apparently some big loophole in the wording that I
didn't quite understand but he said it wasn't up to them to do this anyway.
So I called USDA in Wash D.C.  who said that a state can write what they
want into a law (MI law says something about USDA standards) but they're a
federal agency and only enforce their own laws.  I managed to convince them
to send out their MI inspector anyway and got her number.  When I talked to
her she said that she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, that it
wasn't as bad as mink farms and she mentioned that his water wasn't frozen
which she took as a good sign (I was there in October and she got there in
January).  She told him he should move out some of the manure.  When I asked
about bedding (it was January and they didn't have any when I was there) she
said she didn't notice.  Nor did she mention or notice if they all had food
(they didn't when I was there and Boris would literally dive into his food
bowl everytime I put food in even though food was there).  She did talk to
his vet and the vet seemed to think that he had "some care for his animals".
I got the definite impression that had he been under USDA jurisdiction she
wouldn't have written him up.  He couldn't even tell me when his last shot
was, they gave the shots themsevles.  My take on all this is that the USDA's
standards are very basic and geared toward farm animals who are going to be
killed for food or fur.  I thought it was very nice of her to take a look
even though he didn't sell to retail - which is when you need to be USDA
licensed and under their jurisdiction (or a breeder of over 200 hundred
animals or something).  So bottom line I wasn't impressed or comforted by
USDA standards in the least, their minimums don't seem like a good deal to
me.
 
On finding their way home - Boris is sort of timid and doesn't seem as
inclined to wander as far (he seems more interested in finding places to
hole up) and Giesela really likes to go in one direction and keep going!  I
don't think Giesela, even though she seems smarter, would find her way home
because she would probably travel much farther.
 
Rabies - I am now totally confused.  My vets give FERVAC-D.  I thought that
was the right one?  Can someone clear this up?
 
Thanks
Mary, Boris and Giesela
 
[Moderator's note: To head off the inevitable rush for tomorrows digest:
FERVAC-D is the vaccine for distempter,  IMRAB-3 the one for rabies.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1700]