Danielle wrote:
>After all, what does any ferret enthusiast have to gain by bashing
>Marshall Farms?  NOTHING!  I am not a breeder or another farm competing
>with them, nor do I produce ferret supplies, so what would I have to
>gain?  What would anyone who voices concerns on this board (other than
>a competing business) have to gain?  Let's consider the motivation and
>concern before jumping to conclusions over why someone voices what they do.
 
Yes, but on the other side what does anyone who defends their progress over
the years have to gain?  Again : NOTHING!  (I know that for a fact ! :-)
LOL!  Nothing ever offered, nothing ever asked for except info, nothing
ever accepted.)
 
I think that the MF debate is like looking at one glass among others which
are all about half full and half empty.  Some of us say, "Hey, it used to
be more empty; look at the improvements and know that they can be done by
staying fair and avoiding rumors." and "How does it differ from the rest?
If it is undermined will one with even less water take over the market?"
Meanwhile, some folks notice the empty space -- which is definitely there,
or figure that if one is attacked then the rest will run scared and add
more water for that reason.
 
This isn't an area in which there are easy answers, and as you have noted
there is a great deal of flux in people's opinions.  If they were clearly
horrid or clearly marvelous there would not be such fluid shifts in
opinions in either direction, ditto for the other farms such as Path
Valley, Triple F, Hagan, etc.
 
I suspect that if the majority of people are considered then most will
say (what I consider) the most logical thing to anyone: that they do have
progress to be made but that the progress made so far is appreciated.
That's true for any farm, though it is NOT a reason to fail to try for
progress.
 
Being able be grateful for improvements made actually shows that there is
HOPE for further progress.
 
Make sure that their competitors don't derail that progress, though.  MF is
a business and must stay competitive so if they make costly improvements
but their competitors don't then they can be undermined by places that are
worse.  Those who try for improvements have to ratchet up one, then ratchet
up another, then another, etc.  before returning to the first again to have
longest term results.
 
Oh, and a quick note in relation to the faked MFs: yes, that has been
continuing and is on the rise in some areas.  Some shelter folks in at
least one area are trying to do what they can to track some of these toward
catching at least some stores/distributors/breeders who do it.  One problem
is when stores say "Who US?  Well, we didn't know that they were fakes when
the distributor contacted us so you can't blame us...", then if they are
a large place like a big chain store they might well have a list of
distributors as long as an arm and don't know which ferrets came from which
distributors.  Fun, huh?  I haven't been doing that tracking work, but I
sure respect those do!  It is good hard work to help improve things for
ferrets!  The fakes have a very sorry tendency to be of bad health; faking
sources seems to at least sometimes be a ploy used by backyard breeders for
unloading their inbred terrible "stock".  This has happened to other farms
and breeders, certainly, and i suspect that it is a danger that will only
increase, happening more and more to known breeders or farms as the puppy
mill types increase their foray into backyard breeding of ferrets, as they
have done with other pets.
 
Wouldn't it be great to have better national and state laws for shutting
down backyard breeders and puppy mills?  They are the worst of the lot,
then the farms fall somewhere in between, and then there are the best
reputable small breeders who are the top.
[Posted in FML issue 3448]