>When you ask, "If all of us boycott...", there really is no "all" of
>us. "All" of us reading and posting to the FML represent a very small
>percentage of ferret owners. Even if everyone on the FML decided to
>refuse to buy MF kits, there would still be a tremendous market and those
>kits would still find homes. A boycott does not have to be universal and
>leave kits homeless in pet stores. A boycott of even a small percentage
>of ferret lovers refusing to buy MF pet products or food would still get
>some attention. And before you even get listened to, you have to get the
>attention of the person or entity you're trying to change.
Also, the simple fact of the matter is that many here plain don't agree
with the conclusions others are drawing. In 19 and 1/2 years with ferrets
the MF ones here have not been any different than the ones from the many
other sources, large or small, that we also have had. Yes, there are MF
products i don't use, but that is based on which ones I don't like or
don't need rather than on anything else, same as for anyplace else. Are
there changes I would like to see? Sure there are. Have there been
changes in the right direction that i have seen over the years? Yes.
There have. They have happened when written, ferret-loving and
business-like ones have arrived that take into account what can be
affordably done at any given time. Frankly, I'm more worried by the
direction in the last few years of a certain other farm (not naming
names, but you know that there are a number of such farms), which I still
hope will listen more and switch back to certain better practises they
once had. Are there changes that NO farm can afford to make unless the
rest also do -- ones that therefore would require legislative changes to
not backfire or be ignored -- most definitely there are. Personally, I
suspect that a boycott of any single farm and its products would either
fizzle (as has historically happened -- having been here since issue one
and having seen multiple attempts by various people -- or it would hurt
one and let ones that are similar in changes-desired or perhaps worse
become way too powerful and too often bought.
>Point #3) While perhaps the idea of farm breeding, and the problems
>inherint in that are not ideal, I have never been shown proof that
>Marshall Farms is really all that bad a place. YES, I have heard the
>stories of babies being shipped too young. YES, I have heard the
>possible medical issues of early spays and what have you. YES, I know
>that MF sells to labs. YES, I understand that people assume MF ferrets
>have higher disease rates. What all this translates too is this:
>
>Of the many many ferrets they breed, occasionally a very small number of
>them are shipped too early. This is an infrequent mistake.
Yes. When such mistakes are documented folks need to report them to
whichever farm did it that time (They ALL have.) with substantiation.
(Remember my post yesterday on how to age kits since size is totally
unreliable. Use reliable features --even if it means notifying a
farm that you have found a suspect crew and will be following dental
eruption times for one to verify -- or ask to see the shipping
papers.) I have heard of serious booms being dropped on someone who
shipped to early from MF due a holiday demand once a few years ago;
have you noticed that the petstores no longer are flooded by MFs for
holidays? They have made sure that did NOT happen again! MF was
responsive and put the welfare of the kits ahead of easy profits in
that choice.
Have seen other changes in farms (including others in MF) in response to
other things, too, through the years. Did you know that MF might well be
the single largest source of donations to improve ferret medical options
and care? Remember, when i say that, that Steve and I (until this year
when we had to save half our income due to Steve's Labs being dissolved
soon) gave in the thousands annually to that cause, as have at least
three others I know about.
>Each life sacrificed to this research save hundreds or more of our OWN
>ferrets' lives. Not to mention the benifits to human medicine that have
>come from ferret research. (Intubation of infants is just one example.
>Ask a mother who's child's life was saved by such a procedure if she
>wouldn't rather those ferrets lives had been spared.)
Except that those ferrets survive the procedure and some places DO adopt
out the ferrets afterward, just as some places adopt out the ones used for
developing influenza vaccines. there are people here who have or have had
such ferrets. Anyone who knows of a place that doesn't adopt out can
approach them and try to change their policies. that's a change which
can be made by asking in a friendly way and coming armed with facts.
---
Just learned from an acquaintance at MF, who tends toward pronounced
modesty on his own regard, of some good changes in who has what post as of
last year; those could mean even more good changes as long as they are
affordable and logical, and are actual improvements rather than just what
some would like to think would be improvements. One thing that i have
noticed is that there often are those who have barely had ferret
experience figuring that they know all there is to understand. Actually,
the more time spent with ferrets, the more it becomes obvious that there
is to learn.
[Posted in FML issue 3625]
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