I just wanted to share my experience with a different pet store.  The first
time I went in there after adopting my ferret and saw their ferrets (now
that I was SOOO ferret knowledgeable, thanks to the boards and the FFML), I
was appalled at how they were treated--in a glass aquarium with chewed-up
cardboard, no food, poop all over the cage.  I complained to the manager
and she was a you-know-what to me.  So I got the number to this company's
corporate Headquarters and spoke to the regional manager.  Boy did that get
results!  I don't know if it was just due to me or not, but the manager was
fired and replaced with someone who actually knows something about ferrets,
and now they have food all the time, and a litter box, but with clumping
cat litter in it.  Still in the glass cage with shavings, but at least
they're not cedar!  When I went to get my Merlin there (I didn't know I
was getting him at the time), the food had been wet for the supposed babies
who couldn't eat hard food yet--and it was a hardened clump in the bowl.
Merlin was scraping at it with his teeth and couldn't get any out.  I of
course bought him (he'd already been bought and returned and was in with
five tiny babies) and he and my other ferret got sick.  To make a long
story long :-), I called Marshall Farms directly and complained about how
the ferrets were being treated at this pet store.  They now have regular
hard food, water all the time, a nice litter box with what looks like corn
cob litter, and some appropriate ferret toys (though the cardboard tube is
still in there).  As for PetCo, we have one of those, too, and they are
usually pretty good about their ferrets--the guy who takes care of them has
ferrets of his own, so makes sure these guys get plenty of out-of-cage time
while he is cleaning.  My vet told me, though, that while my ferret was in
his care getting fixed up, another little baby had come in from that PetCo,
barely 6 weeks old he swore, so sick he didn't think she'd make it.  After
$300 and a weekend at the vets, she went back to the store.  Bad?  Well, at
least they paid the bill--they could have just had her put to sleep, I
suppose, since they only get $119 for the ferrets they sell at the store,
and I don't know what part of that they actually pay to Marshall's for the
ferrets.
 
Moral: If you don't get results at one level of management, and it means
a lot to you, keep going up the chain.  There is always someone higher
up.....
 
debbi, Molly Doll, and Merlin
p.s. Douglas Cuddle Toys has a website, if anyone is interested in their
stuffies: www.douglascuddletoy.com. The big ferret is $25, and they have
an ermine and a little ferret too.
[Posted in FML issue 2943]