Very good point Shelley.  And it has been tried, when "Stichting de Fret"
started around 15 years ago, we also set up a pedigree.  These ferrets
were registered with us and we had very healthy breeding lines.  People
wanting ferrets could get in touch with us and we could tell them where
to go.  But in the last 3 or 4 years the pedigree has fallen to none,
why.  Because the ferret has become very popular in Holland, but people
don't want an expensive healthy pedigree ferret anymore.  They want a
Blaze, Panda, Silvermit, angora, Anything that is not normal, because,
"hey what color is you're ferret," "I got a polka dot"  Consequently the
people breeding healthy pedigree ferrets have stopped breeding because
they were left sitting with a nest of healthy normal colored ferrets.
 
As we from SDF also refuse to acknowledge the not natural colors and fur,
it has also cost us a lot of our members.  So what should we do, accept
the unnatural colors and get more members?  , When that happens, that is
when I will stop all and any work I do for ferrets, Not because I "can
not get my own way" but because I will not knowingly help the ferret
disintegrate too the point that some cats and dogs have already arrived
at.  Until around 3 or 4 years ago, I could with all honesty say the
ferrets in Holland were much healthier than in America.  Now I really
don't think we have any healthy ferrets left in Holland.  The new fad
here, are ferrets from a breeder in New Zeeland, Problem is 80% of these
ferrets die around one year of age, Stichting De Fret has been working,
read (paying the bills) to try and find out what is wrong with these
ferrets.  We think we know, but we are waiting for the results of tests
from America.  It what we suspect is true; well the sh*t will hit the
fan.
 
What gets me the most is that.  The removal of the scent gland is illegal
in Holland, so the importer and the shop that sell the New Zeeland
ferrets are by law punishable, but people want these ferrets so bad that
they don't report the shops.  So you see, a registration or pedigree will
not work unless people chose for healthy ferrets instead of different
ferrets.
 
Stephenie Netherlands
[Posted in FML issue 4800]