Hello,
 
I agree heartily with the call to put to rest the Marshall Farms bickering.
We've heard all the arguments.  The reason I'm writing is to follow up on
Bill Killian's comments about the "retired" breeder problem that they have.
He's absolutely right that it is easy to condemn, but with 2000+ people on
this list we should be able to think of some real solutions.  Here are some
points I have seen before.  Maybe we can build on this.
 
Breeding ferrets have no value after about 4 years of age, either for
further breeding or for research.  What should be done with these animals?
 
Solution 1:  Adopt them out to homes.  Collect tax benefits.
 
Problem 1a:  Breeders not socialized properly.
Problem 1b:  Local New York shelters and homes will be saturated quickly.
             Shipping will only introduce more cost (for someone) and
             saturation of distant shelters and homes.
Problem 1c:  You cannot write off a depreciated animal.  No tax benefit.
 
Solution 2:  Sell them at a slightly younger (partially depreciated) age
             at a discount.
 
Problem 2a:  Sales of breeders would negatively impact the profits
             realized from kits.
Problem 2b:  Breeders are still poorly socialized.
Problem 2c:  Most people want kits.  Adults are hard to place.
 
Solution 3:  Produce more litters per female, thus requiring less breeding
             stock, reducing the breeder disposal problem.
 
Problem 3a:  They're already doing this, and it's evil evil evil.  ;)
 
Solution 4: Send them to senior citizens in lieu of Social Security
            Benefits.  This will kill two birds with one stone: retired
            breeder ferrets and retired hoomans, while bailing out the
            floundering US Social Security system.  (I can just see all the
            geezers opening their envelopes that day... :)<---yuk yuk
 
Solution 4:  Duct tape them to retired greyhounds.
 
I think with careful manipulation of actual numbers, someone could work out
a viable and sustainable plan for retirement of breeding ferrets.  However,
this plan will not work if it either a) cuts into Marshall's profits or b)
costs someone else a lot of money (those people would then be absorbing the
expense for Marshall Farms.  That's not right.)
 
How many breeders are we talking about?  Say, one female for every ten or
fifteen kits produced per year?  (five to ten per litter for two breedings?)
Did someone say they sell 15,000 kits per year, or did I make that up?
Well, assuming 15,000/15 that's 1000 females and say, 300 males.  1300/4
years of use-life is 325 ferrets per year retiring.  Actually, that doesn't
sound too bad...
 
Animals used in research are often retired as pets (GASP), if the conditions
are right.  By that, I mean, if they have not had intrusive procedures such
as surgeries, etc.  So it is not unrealistic to postulate a happy ending for
breeder ferrets, but it is not an easy problem either.
 
Hoping this fuels a constructive discussion...
 
-Catherine
[Posted in FML issue 1815]