Sukie asked for more details.  This is from The Oregonian 6/4/97.
 
I have not seen any mention of ferrets in any news story about this raid.
"The ranch reported 400 adult females and 2000 kits dead or missing [of
about 10,000 total mink released]." This means about 75% of the mink
survived long enough to be recaptured (the raid was on 4/30), counter to a
recent FML post suggesting most of them died.  Allegedly, the people who
released the mink trampled some to death during the raid [I'm guessing just
a few, and the industry people are playing this angle up].  The news story
quotes an animal rights activist questioning the industry report of how many
mink died: "They claim thousands of minks have died.  Lets see thousands of
bodies." [The guy who said this was from Texas, and I'm guessing he'd
probably see plenty of bodies if he visited and was allowed onto the site.]
 
Anything more, and I'm sure BIG's off-topic filter would dump this message
into the bit bucket.  Hope this answered your (ferret-related) questions.
 
-- Kim
[Posted in FML issue 1958]