It may be difficult to know exactly without a search with the agriculture
secretary (SAGARPA) and the ecology secretary (SEMARNAT) that are the
ones that give the permissions to import ferrets from USA to Mexico.
There is basically just one big chain store (http://www.maskota.com.mx)
that imports from Marshall ferrets in NY.
 
Now, this is my calculation: At the moment there are about 22 stores in
the city and 15 outside Mexico city that sell ferrets.  This started
about 12 years ago, but at the beginning there was only about one third
of the stores that are now, so let's suppose that at the beginning there
were 13 stores, four years later there were 12 more and in the past four
years other 12.  Now I have observed that they have a new litter at least
4 times per year and it is about 10 to 12 ferrets each time, this gave
us about 40 to 48 ferrets per year per store.  I made it 45 for the
calculation.  This is that in the first 4 years in 13 stores there were
sold 2,340 ferrets, the next 4 years with 12 new stores it would have
been 2,160 ferrets added to the ones from the other 13 stores, this mean
4,500 ferrets and in the very past four years with 12 more stores that
sell other 2,160 ferrets in 4 years we have 9,000 ferrets.
 
If the number of stores does not increase any more, we have at the moment
2,250 ferrets sold each year in Mexican soil.  In total numbers in the
past 12 years there have been sold 15,840 ferrets so far.  This is just a
guessing based on observation but I would dare to bet that is not so far
from reality.
 
Best regards to everybody and kisses to the fuzzies!!!
Cathie.
[Posted in FML issue 4887]