I agree with both sides of the issue.  We do a little of both:
 
We have a spare room that we use for the ferrets.  Their cage sits in that
room, and is left open for them to come and go as they please.
 
When we are home, the spare room's door is open and they have access to the
rest of the apartment, as well as their cage.
 
When we are not home, they are confined to their room, with the cage open.
 
At night, we lock them in their cage.  It started when we brought our
youngest home because he would dig at the door all night to get out and be
with us.  The more I thought about it, I felt more secure doing this in case
we had a fire or some other emergency - I knew exactly where the 6 of them
were sleeping.
 
- Mish
 
__MICHELLE Z. MATTA__________________________
Carnegie Mellon University......Athletic Dept
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http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mish/home.html
(Departmental)....http://www.cmu.edu/athletic
_____________________________________________
[Posted in FML issue 1942]