If I might.....
 
The Marshall Farms debate goes on and on...Bill....Alphachi...SHUT UP
ALREADY!  (HEH) We are tired of the debate...nothing can be proven, one way
or the other.  It is an emotional issue that is always clouded with
distortion on both sides.
 
Here are facts...
 
Back in the early '80's the most popular computer on the market was the
Commodore 64.  Millions were sold..all other computers manufactured couldn't
even begin to compete.  It was said that the 1541 disk drive that Commodore
made, was junk..always overheated and broke often.  The truth was, with 3.5
million of them in American homes, a 5% failure rate was really
noticeable...considering the IBM PC had a terrible floppy drive but we never
heard about it failing..simply because there were fewer than 100,000 ever
made...even 10% failure rate was substantially less than Commodore's 5%
failure.  The fact is, the more of something sold, the more you are going to
hear about failures...after all, no one rants and raves about how good
something is!
 
Let's jump to the present...Packard Bell computers are touted as the world's
worst.  Don't buy one, they are junk, etc.  Well...considering that they
sell more computers in a month than all other computer manufacturers sell in
a year, I guess the same adage holds true here as well...the more sold, the
more we are going to hear about failure.  Truth is, Compaq, AST and Acer
have a much higher failure rate than Packard Bell..but we don't hear about
it due to numbers.
 
Now to Marshall Farms again...being as they sell more ferrets nationwide
than all other ferret farms put together, we are going to hear more about
medical problems from them than all the others.  Unfortunately, because we
are so attached to our fur-kids, emotion clouds the issue.  We say, make MF
accountable...that is bull pucky...I don't know of too many corporations
that have any accountablilty to anyone outside of its board of directors and
stockholders.  Let's be realistic here...check the emotions on the hat stand
before coming inside.  I have had 4 ferrets...2 of which are Marshall
Farms..my 2 non-MF have both been plagued with adrenal and health issues (My
old timer, Bubba, died at an age of 10 1/2).  The 2 MF's are healthy as
little oxen.  I am fortunate that only 50% of my fur-kids have had
problems...but...if I were to apply the emotional mathmatics demonstrated
here on the FML to ferret health, Marshall Farms would be squeeky clean and
the greatest breeder to have ever existed!
 
I have rambled on for some time, but have tried to make a point.  Forget all
this hoo-rah about accountability, and MF neuters too early, and kitchen
tables, and, coat-hangers, and back alleys, and stick with the real
facts--that we love our fuzzies, no matter where they come from.  Let us
spend our energy on telling tale tails about the exploits of our babies, and
finding new and wonderful ferret toys, and obscure ferret facts, and bashing
mis-informed newspaper columnists, etc.
 
No apologies for the length of this missive..~~I~~ feel it needed to be
said.  If you have comments, feel free to e-mail me..I have a good delete
key!  <GRIN>
 
Joe
 
[Moderator's note: When the Marshall Farms discussions begin to repeat
themselves and their primary purpose is no longer to increase knowledge but
seemingly to argue for the sake of arguing, then it will be time to call a
stop to it.  I don't think we're quite there yet, but perhaps we aren't too
far away either.
 
I can't resist pointing out that in my opinion Packard Bell computers do
indeed deserve their reputation.  Just as in MF discussions, you need to
look at the entire picture including type of use, the environments where the
use occurs, performance, alternatives, price, guarantees, research, support,
etc.  I believe that neither computers nor Marshall Farms are as simple as
one may be lead to believe.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1986]