The below letter was sent by e-mail to:
 
Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
P.O. Box 208
Davis, California 95617-0208, U.S.A.
 
Voice phone: 530.759.8106
Facsimile: 530.759.8116
Internet, e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Internet, web site: http://AVAR.org
 
For several years the folks at PETA have said that Marshall Farms was
planning to start a new facility in France; now they say the project
has been dropped.
 
The problem is that when people tried checking into this no confirming
documents could be found in years past.
 
They name YOU as one of the sources of this information according to a
friend.
 
Do you know as a fact that any such application was ever made?
 
The over 3,000 members of the ferret mailing list are curious.  You see,
on one hand we have one story from a pet "farm" (Marshall Farms) but on
the other we have PETA which still insists that ferrets pose a rabies risk
despite the extensive work at the CDC and KSU, despite the similar work
in both France and Germany, and despite the Compendium of Animal Rabies
Control.  They also insist that ferrets are wild animals despite them
having been domesticated for so long that they appear in the works of
Aristophames and Pliny and despite physical and behavioral changes
consistent with that domestication, and PETA insists that they should be
turned loose to fend for themselves despite their being obligate carnivores
which food imprint in their first months and there being a strong history
of them most often dying rapidly when loose.  PETA also does not take into
account that such releases not only would kill the ferrets but might
release into the wild mustelid populations illnesses such as ECE.
 
Obviously, NEITHER source is trusted.  As a result we are trying to confirm
whether you or the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine which they
also mention actually DID independently know this info, or if they are just
involving your names.
 
 ---
 
Now, I'll need to get the time to find an address for Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine and ask them the same thing.
 
Trust is EARNED...
[Posted in FML issue 2908]