Hi all,
 
It's been awhile since I did a heartfelt and personal post...but the
holidays are over and hopefully I'm not the only one who's starting to
feel like their old selves again!
 
I'd like to deeply thank Melissa for sharing the images from the ALF
website (I wouldn't have seen them otherwise).  Unless I can somehow
be convinced that ALF went into a clean, well-ordered environment and
stripped the ferret cages of hammocks and bedding, tucked the ferrets into
their litterboxes, and dripped diarrhea all over the cages before snapping
the photos, I think that we ferret lovers have a lot to be concerned about
when it comes to MF.  There is now some very solid proof, accessible to
everyone on a website, showing us what we have been uncertain of.  As
Danielle pointed out, visitors are not invited into MF and the excuse is
always that visitors would bring "germs" or outside contaminents.  Hmm,
and would that be worse than a ferret living in a cage that's covered
with smears of liquid fecal matter?
 
This is some pretty solid proof, to me at least, that there is a lot of
carelessness at MF.  I don't even want to know how many ferrets have been
involved in fatal accidents after escaping from their cages and wandering
around those barns and sheds as seen in the pictures and chalked up on
the erase-board.  What a careless company.  They should be manufacturing
widgets, not ferrets.  Don't even get me started on those piles of waste
in a heap in the woods.  You'd think an upstanding, responsible company
like they claim to be could at least afford (or have the conscience) to
have its hazardous medical waste disposed of properly.  If I were their
neighbor I'd be slapping them with a pollution lawsuit larger than life.
 
Danielle made an excellent, excellent point about the "sleeping in the
litterbox" habit.  Frequently there are posts asking how to correct this
behavior.  I too was struck by the images of rows of little ferrets curled
up in the litterboxes because their only other options are bare wire
that's coated with their own diarrhea, and it seems elementary that this
is likely where they begin learning this behavior (I'd not be surprised
if that's where the jills give birth and keep their young, if it's the
only soft place off of the wires.  It looked to me like they use their
litterboxes for beds and their cage for a toilet, which would certainly
explain why frustrated new owners find that their ferrets have "backwards"
bathroom habits!).  I won't even get into the dogs that have mange all
over their faces.  Obviously Marshall Farms' ONE vet is not doing his or
her job very effectively, for all their bragging about their vet on the
premises.  It's also worth noting that MF's esteemed President, Gary
Marshall himself, is a vet.  How then would he justify the condition of
these beagles or the fact that these ferrets are either sick or stressed
to the point of having diarrhea??
 
Again I'd like to encourage anyone concerned to write letters to Marshall
Farms, describing what we've seen and how it makes us FEEL.  I can't
stress enough that we as ferret owners are part of their target group of
consumers, especially for their food, accessories, health care products,
etc.  I am going to let MF know that when I see a picture of a cage full
of MF ferrets who all clearly are suffering from extensive bowel problems,
it sure doesn't make me want to buy a bag of Marshall's food and feed it
to my ferrets knowing that that's what's being fed to those poor ferrets!
I am going to let them know that if they can't provide their ferrets with
even a simple soft surface to sleep on, and the ferrets are forced to
curl up on their litter, I am not going to EVER spend my money on Marshall
Farms' hammocks or sleep-sacks.  I'll buy my hammocks from shelters and
rescues who keep their ferrets in clean cages with some place soft to
sleep.  My communication with Marshall Farms will be courteous and
professional, but I plan to tell them how I feel and how these images
make me want to avoid their products entirely.  With 6 ferrets, I could
have bought a decent amount of Marshall's stuff if I felt differently,
and I will make that point to them.
 
The address is Gary Marshall, President
Marshall Farms USA, Inc
5800 Lake Bluff Road
North Rose, NY 14516
 
We've discussed on the FML various aspects of the MF debate, including
the fact that it would be beneficial to attempt to communicate and make
changes with all farms, all at once.  I do still agree this would be the
ideal situation.  But I am choosing to act right now on the images I've
seen and let this company know that a piece of what they claim is not
going on has been proven and I, as a ferret lover, owner, and rescuer,
have seen it for myself.
 
On another topic, seems like the raffle controversy may be on its way out.
Good.  Like many topics that get tossed back and forth here, there were
some misunderstandings, some things taken out of context, etc.  Seems like
someone always gets taken the wrong way on any topic.  My rescue group
also runs frequent raffles, and those who buy more tickets do have a
greater chance.  If you buy 20 lottery scratch tickets, you might win on
5 of them, whereas of you only buy one, chances are it's a loser.  Whether
it's fair that SOS didn't have a rule from the beginning that one person
could only win a certain number of prizes, well, that was up to them and
they didn't run the raffle that way.  Nothing particularly outrageous
about that, and no one who bought tickets was told otherwise.  I don't
think SOS will have trouble selling tickets in the future; they run
great raffles with great prizes (and they offer soaps as a "consolation"
second-place prize; many raffles don't offer anything other than the main
prize, so that's just another way SOS makes their raffles attractive and
raises more money for the shelters).
 
I'd buy an SOS ticket any day.  Keep up the good work guys.
 
A peaceful New Year to all,
 
Heather W.
Supervised by Dante, Nikita, Dusty, Beanie, Boomer, and Rocky
[Posted in FML issue 3653]