I too was offended by those photographs in Modern Ferret.  Cages, cages and
more cages in many advertisements!  People might get the idea that you can
put a ferret ina cage and ignore it forever!  Or no wait.  Thats not what
you others were offended about?
 
I hope Mary and Eric are smart enough to not respond.  Everyone is welcome
to their opinions on any topic but no one has the right to speak for others
or even the majority of people here or elsewhere.  We have the courage to
use our real name.
 
We are long time subscribers and through the magazine have become long time
friends.  We are also both long time Harry Anderson fans.  And once we
learned that Harry himself owned ferrets we were pleased but not really
surprised - they fit his off the wall personality.  If you actually read
the text you'd get the impression that Dashiell was the target of most
abuse - so you didn't read this carefully or you would have mentioned
abused children.  Nobody should take that article all that seriously.
 
>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Lack of Respect and MODERN FERRET
 
This issue is perhaps their best yet.  They shouldn't trash their magazine
(like the un-named competitor) by only publishing milktoast crap that seeks
consciously to be inoffensive to advertisers.
 
The magazine that offends us is the magazine that won't take risks.
 
>There seems to be LACK OF RESPECT:
 
You can feel that but it isn't believed by some of us who fit into the
categories you list.
 
>1. For the ADVERTISERS [...]
>2. For the INDIVIDUALS who submitted stories/photos of their ferrets. [...]
>3. For the CONTRIBUTING WRITERS [...]
>4. For those FERRET OWNERS who have tragically lost [...]
>5. For SHELTER OPERATORS
 
We have been advertisers.  We have had photos in the magazine.  I have been
a writer and am writing more for them.  We've lost ferrets to accidents.
We run a shelter.  Being part of those five categories we state very
clearly.  We are not offended.  We have been laughing ever since we forst
saw the photos about a month ago.  When we finally saw the issue in final
form we laughed even harder.
 
But Diane's thoughts...
 
>to rekindle via graphic photos those traumatic memories for these
>already emotionally devastated ferret folks
 
Our hearts go out to those of you who are still grieving the ferrets
you've sliced and diced or ran through a meat grinder while preparing the
evening meal.  Not sure why else you would see Harry's photos and relate
them to your ferrets.
 
>6. For the FERRETS themselves.
 
You can speak for ferrets no more than we can.  "Dook dook" is about as
close as we people can come afterall.  But I can absolutely assure you that
no ferrets will actually look at the magazine and have a clue that you
think they should feel offended.  Really, I will bet you anything they
won't care but I can't say that they are are not offended - if they can be
offended.
 
>So, what are OUR conscious choices if we are, indeed, offended?
 
You should have heeded the warnings if you are that easily offended by
what is to a large portion of the population the humor of a very popular
entertainer.
 
>(3) Remove the offending pages from your copy and mail back to MF with a
>    request for a refund for Issue #24.
 
If you want all the money back, return ALL the magazine.
 
>(5) Do not purchase MF#24. [...]  And, instead, contact MF directly
>    requesting a reprint of Sue Peet's and/or Alicia Drakiotes' valuable
>    articles.
 
So if you are genuinely offended by something you haven't seen, don't buy
it?  Sure.  Okay.  Whatever.
 
But why are you entitled to demand they give you something you were
unwilling to pay for.  I can't tell "Time" to send me only articles I want
to see and not those I don't.  So its not true for Modern Ferret either.
 
>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Lack of Respect and MODERN FERRET
 
A bit more commentary based on this post.  'ferts' seems to be encouraging
a less than forthright approach in some cases to deal with something that
was persoanlly offenseive but not to everyone by any means.  Some of the
ideas for reaction were more offensive to us.
 
>It can be pretty intimidating to speak out against the *big* names [...]
>who regularly post here.
 
Okay.  Time to respond to this statement though it has appeared many times
from many others very similarly.  One time we were told something about
how we were stepping on the "little people who supported us".
 
None of us are really big names in ferrets.  Nope.  None of us.  Those of
us that think they are have our own personal ego problems.  THe ferret
world is important to us but it is a small pond.
 
We were really confused by the statement where we were supported by a
particular writer.  Nope.  I support myself and the family by going to work
every day.  For most of us ferrets are a hobby.  Pets and nothing more
(though pets are quite important to many of us).  Some like the Sheffermans
have gone to great expense to produce products for us.  Modern Ferret isn't
keeping them in the money that their previous jobs did.  Sorry to expose
the nasty truth but now they are far worse off financially than before they
did something for us ferret owners.  FOR US.
 
>YOUR opinion is just as important as any one else's.
 
This is 100% correct.  But everyone's opinions are really important only
to  themselves.  Ours to us.  Yours to you.
 
>If MF wishes to change the niche it seeks into something more "cultish"
>and prefers *not* to be supported by mainstream ferret folks
 
Sorry to disagree but we don't remember joining a cult.  Are we supposed
to shave our heads?  Not something the two of us would do - laugh at that
if you've seen us.  We thought we were pretty much mainstream ferret owners.
But in case none of you other ferret owners have noticed - ferret owners
aren't all that mainstream.  Ferrets are not in the same popularity class
with dogs, cats or even fish and rabbits.  Ferret owners tend to be more
bizarre in our experience.  Makes Modern Ferret seem more to finally be
addressing us.
 
>From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Responsible journalism MF?
>It is a well known fact that, small children relate to pictures, forming
>opinions at a very tender age, opinions that last a lifetime.  Do you
>remember your Mother reading your favorite bedtime story (mine was Black
>Beauty)?
 
We showed Derek the magazine.  He was not traumatized.  He didn't get the
humor either.  Said the man was cutting his ferret like pepperoni and
laughed. <shrug>  Oh but he's also 4 not 3.  He certainly had absolutely no
interest in Alicia Drakiotes article (but would really you expect a four
year old to read an article like that?)
 
Seen cartoons lately?  This was 'tame'.
 
>enough to create their own set of nightmares for any child that harbored
>even an ounce of compassion.
 
My turn to be offended.  How dare you claim that because no one in my
family either my childhood or adult families has ever had nightmares from
those stories that we haven't "even an ounce of compassion"!
 
>As for my sense of humor?  There isn't a day that goes by that, we as a
>family don't end the day with (at the very least) one belly splitting
>joke shared among us.  So you see, it isn't a matter of humor, it's a
>matter of taste.
 
Why do we get the feeling that your "belly spliting joke" might not be so
funny to us?  Taste, NO.  But different ideas of what is funny maybe.
Calling us tasteless isn't such a nice thing afterall (but in the spirit
of Harry A. - we haven't tried ourselves for dinner so we don't know- it
might be a matter of taste.)
 
>I would like to think that the majority of the FML body has a champagne
>palate in contrast to the moonshine served up from time to time.  I
>propose that we enter into our new millennium with a renewed spirit in
>what was once, responsible journalism?
 
Nice comment.  What we find funny is moonshine and what you find funny is
champagne.  Well we do live near West Virginia...  But you are wrong
anyway by our opinion.  MF isn't a "newspaper".  Its not the same kind of
journalism.  We find their sense of responsibility outstanding.  Far
better than their competitors who put ferrets in California at risk for
example.
 
>It all boils down to this, choices, choices that can either set us apart
>from all the rest or to lump us all into a macabre ball of sensationalists
>and I hear that, that ball is rapidly loosing it's bounce.  And I Like
>That!
 
Boingy-boingy...  The public by and large isn't losing its fascination
with the macabre.  Penn and Teller, Harry Anderson and others even more
into the macabre are doing very well.
 
-bill diane and even derek chimed in sort of...
--
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2780]