I've not partcipated in the Marshall debate much since I joined the list
over a year ago, mostly because:
 
Marshall farms is an incredibly emotionally charged topic around here.  I
think if I went through some of the health problems that people have had
with their ferrets I'd be angry too.
 
Evidence is limited.  Marshall Farms does not let us into the facility and
provides NO information about operations.  I called a number once about a
year ago asking nicely for information and got a total brushoff.  (Had a
really nice conversation with the Path Valley people though!)
 
However, what facts I do know for sure, I don't like.
 
5 week old kits are really too young to be away from mama.  I don't know a
single hobby breeder (maybe I know only good ones!) who'd alter a kit at 5
weeks and place it in a PET STORE for sale!
 
Marshall Farms is a manufacturing facility.  Manufacturing facilities (I
should know, I've been involved in enough high tech!) work diligently to
reduce cost of goods and not exceed a certain failure rate on the product
they produce.  Gotta build it, and ship it.
 
Now I don't know about genetics and breeding at MF.  I don't know if they
manipulate fertility.  I don't know about their procedures as far as
surgeries either, except we OWN a farm raised partial spay - who had to be
re-spayed not too long ago cause someone was not very through.  I don't know
how much the kits are handled before shipping.  I don't know about housing
or space for animals to excercise.  I don't know where all those Jills go
every year who aren't producing up to expectation.
 
Now I get to the emotional, opinion part.
 
I just know I don't like the idea of "manufacturing" applied to the
companion animals I choose to share my life with.  I just can't believe (and
maybe I'm too skeptical) that ferrets "manufactured" at MF aren't somehow
compromised by their very creation.
 
I do think a previous example applies to some degree.  I know that the AKC
was really unhappy with puppy farms in the mid-late 70s for the mass
production of really substandard dogs in terms of health, confirmation and
temperment.  I also know that the AKC is breeder run and certainly the farms
show a greater profit then the AKC members breeding dogs, so maybe there is
some sort of conflict there.  I also know that uneducated, uninformed
backyard breeding can really compromise good breeds of dogs.  All and all -
when we loose sight of the pet as an indivdual and start thinking dollar
signs animals suffer.
 
If Wendy Winstead were alive today, what she would think?  Think she'd have
breeder ferrets or MF ferrets?  Think she'd be on the fence or on a soap box
on one side or another?
 
Ann
 
Eris, Massey, Iodine, Sluggo, Sophie, Helga & Nicky - did I forget anyone?
[Posted in FML issue 2232]