I'm sorry Nancy, but I'm going to have to disagree with you about some
of your arguments against ferret farms (i.e. Marshall Farms whence my baby
came).  I would concur that if at all possible I would get a ferret from a
breeder (I wanted a really young one, so a shelter probably would not have
worked), simply because as a general rule going straight to the source is
always better than using a middle man (pet store), as you can see the
conditions in which the animal was raised for its first few weeks *and* meet
the parents (an important indicator of health problems/personality).  However,
in my area (east central Illinois) breeders were having problems getting
their females into heat, let alone pregnant, so I gave up and went with the
local pet stores.  I am a vet student, so I asked a *lot* of questions,
suspicious myself of an animal from a large operation.  Here's what I found
out.  My biggest concern was how in the world do you spay a baby ferret?  The
answer -- the ovaries/uterus are *so* tiny that a small probe is inserted, and
they are `zapped' (I'm not sure whether by laser or electricity).  This
procedure is *much* less invasive than traditional spaying and therefore safer
and less traumatic (although admittedly animals seem to have little trouble
recovering within hours from a spay/neuter (especially neuter).  I do not know
about the neuter, but as I have worked for vets and know that this is a
relatively minor procedure even in older dogs (the only point of concern is
that the older the dog, the larger the arteries/veins that need to be cut --
in a very young animal, this causes little concern.  As far as stunting their
growth, I would agree that especially a male neutered young would tend to grow
to a smaller size.  But this is NOT because there is a severe impact of
neutering/spaying on development.  If I remember my reproductive science
correctly, it is because the testosterone feeds back on growth hormone.  More
testosterone=more growth hormone=bigger ferret.  The reason, then, that there
is a bigger effect in males is because they produce far more testosterone than
females (who *do* produce some) and if you take out the major source of
testosterone early, there's obviously less feedback to make more growth
hormone.  But this has *no* effect on the development of any other
system/organ in the body -- the smaller size is *not* an indication of poor
health/development.  Lastly, I have seen many ferrets in many pet stores, and
I'm not sure I have ever seen them less than 8 weeks of age (which is weaning
time anyway, right?).  However, I may have seen some 6-week-olds in N.C. once,
and I agree that this is wrong.  I do believe, though, that Marshall Farms is
in the habit of shipping at 8 weeks -- I got Trella the day she arrived from
there, and she was 8 weeks old.
    Okay, I'm finished now.  I'm not trying to show off or be overly
correcting, it's just I didn't want a bunch of people up at arms over the
farms' supposed cruel treatment of our favourite pets without knowing more of
the facts.  I will agree that there are reasons to be suspicious of them
(depending on what their production rate and living arrangements are), but I
feel that some of the ones that Nancy mentioned were unjustified (no offense
:-)  ).  Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!!
 
Laura L'Heureux and Trella, too
U. of Illinois VM96
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[Posted in FML issue 0366]