When surrounded by revolutionaries and polticians and in the middle of
flying opinions it never hurts to develop some of your own.
 
My first exposure to MF and then possibility that there might be something
wrong, came from one of the "revolutionaries." Often there is an element of
truth in strong opinion - so it never hurts to examine the issue with an
open mind.
 
What I know for sure is...
MF is a commercial organization and probably a profitable one.  Their output
of pet ferrets into the marketplace is considerable.  Oddly enough they do
have a closed door policy.
 
"Farm" type operations dedicated to breeding a large number of animals for
the pet industry have historically had well documented problems with the
conditions the animals are raised in, as well as compromised product due to
a desire to fix physical traits without much attention to bloodlines to
insure that less desirable traits were also not being passed along.
 
What I wonder is...
I'm fairly new to the issue, but I know that some of the people who read
this list are active in AFA and LIFE and LOS.  Have any of the assocations
ever appealed to MF to communicate any of those answers to the questions we
all have?
 
I know innocent until proven guilty and all, but if these questions have
been posed to MF and their response is silence, it makes me wonder if guilt
is implicit.
 
Which leads to...
Another thought - if some of these health problems are genetic and
excerbated by the small size gene pool - aren't those of us with breeder
ferrets also at risk?  Have any of the folks breeding noticed any genetic
predispositions in their own ferrets?  Just wondering.
 
                                ***
 
I've read Kevin Cowherd for a few years as often his columns appear as guest
opinions in many papers
 
What I found so offensive about his original article was he exemplifies a
particualr trait that I find hateful.
 
Lack of regard for living things.
 
This includes the elderly and poverty stricken children as well as bats or
opossums - normally creatures our society does not treat well.
 
His original article trashed ferret owners and also pot bellied pigs by
trashing those animals as pets, and detailing what he viewed as
overwhelmingly negative traits without touching upon any positive.  First -
the owners of those animals are going to react negativly.  He left the door
open for that sort of response.  Secondly - that kind of writing influences
a wide audiance to make uninformed choices about how they view those beings.
 
I believe Kevin Cowherd has a journalistic responsibility to tread carefully
around any subject in which the object of his tirade cannot defend
themselves.  That is being a bully, even one with a nice word processor.
 
I wonder what the reaction would have been if he choose a racial group, some
disabled people or golfers?
 
Ann
[Posted in FML issue 1988]