Chip,
 
        Thank you for your information regarding ferret farms.  I would
appreciate any further information you can send.  You can send it to my email
address, or if you need my *real* address, I'll be happy to give it to you.
Please understand, I am by no means advocating a practice that is harmful to
ferrets; I just didn't want people to dislike these places for the wrong
reasons.  I would have to know more about them before I formed an opinion one
way or the other.  It has been my experience that many animal lovers tend to
be rather reactionary without knowing all the facts, understandably since the
thought of an animal coming to harm brings with it such strong feelings.
However, I would like to more before I react; for instance, I would not be
quick to conclude that 70% of the ferrets are used for research is bad, as I
am a vet student an understand the necessity for certain types of research for
the greater good of the animals in the end -- however, what type of research
is this exactly?  I hope I'm not offending anyone; I realize people tend to
have strong feelings about this sort of thing.  So do I.  I am going to be a
vet; naturally I am *very* concerned about the welfare of any animal.  I just
want to know all the facts.  My main concern is this:  if these farms are so
horrible, then why are we not taking steps to shut them down.  I realize that
not buying from them so they go bankrupt is a thought; but if most of the
ferrets are used for research, this probably would not work and I would
probably continue to buy ferrets from pet stores who use these farms (only in
the absence of a better alternative as was the case when I bought Trella) in
order to ensure that at least one of these animals got a good home -- if no
one buys them, what do you reckon happens to them?  I think I could guess.
Food for thought.
 
Laura L'Heureux and Trella, too
U. of Illinois VM96
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[Posted in FML issue 0370]