>I can play the devil's advocate, because this *is* the way I got my
>ferrets.  I received my first baby as a present.  We had just moved and
>got her about three months later.  Snip
 
Julie - please don't take me wrong - I know I belive wholeheartedly that
my experiences count in a discussion - there is no reason to be defensive
about having gotten your first ferrets in a pet store.  Most of us have
been there.  However it is not really a sound argument for continuing to
sell them there.
 
>It was some time later that we found the FML and stopped reading the
>newsgroup.  It was almost a year until we found Modern Ferret magazine.
>My point?  I didn't know what a Marshall Farms ferret was until almost a
>year and a half after we got Boo.  I didn't know there *were* other places
>to get my babies.  All 5 of them are MF babies, and I couldn't be prouder,
>but that's not the point.  The only place I have ever seen ANY advertising
>for ferrets other than MF is in Modern Ferret.  That, it seems, is not
>Marshall Farms problem.  They're huge, they advertise.  How is a potential
>buyer supposed to know what is out there?  I didn't.  Yes, our first ferret
>was an impulse buy.  Our other 4 sure weren't, and the 4 were are going to
>adopt on top of that aren't.  There is no way for people to know about
>"private breeders".  Most people think I'm kidding when I say there are
>ferret shelters, let alone private stock.  I don't mean it as a slam or
>anything, it's just the way it is.  And that's a problem for some of you
>(by reading the opinions on the "ferret mills" and such).
 
My .02 is that if people have heard or seen ferrets and they want one bad
enough they will contact vet offices, the humane society and keep on till
they find where to get one.  This is often (hopefully) and educational
process and I think a good thing.  Not being able to buy a ferret in a pet
store will not stop someone who really wants one.  I know I know - but "I'd
never have found out about ferrets if they weren't in pet stores" (1) that
is probably more true a couple of years ago than now.  Ferret books and
magazines are in every pet store.  We have 24 Animal Planet that
occassionally shows ferrets.  More and more people have them now so friends
and family hear more about them.  I often see them advertised in the local
papers (unfortunately usually people trying to rehome, more unfortuantely
backyard breeders) (2) If its between a few good people spend their lives
in ignorant bliss without a ferret vs.  thousands of ferrets being "milled"
I think its less selfish to take the high road so to speak.
 
 So how do you fix it?
 
Get out there and educate!
 
>Julie
Mary, Boris and Giesela and Booker the dog
[Posted in FML issue 2527]