OK, so I realize that you are friends with Doug. And because of that
you feel that you have to defend him. Defending people we care about
is human nature whether what you are defending is right or wrong. We
all do this and should expect posts from Doug's friends and family
that defend his actions.

I am not going to dispute that Doug is a nice person or is a sickly
old man. I have never met him and have not right to do this. And for
all of you out there that are disputing these facts and have not met
him, STOP! Like me, you have no right to do this.

Now, I will agree that Doug has a problem when it comes to the care
of his animals. It doesn't matter whether the problem is due to over
breeding, illness, lack of money, etc. He still has a problem.

Now I have not had the opportunity to go and see Doug's farm for myself
yet, but I am trying to plan a trip down there. However, I grew up in
a very large farming community. Most of the farms had some sort of
animals. In fact, most of them were cattle farms (and not dairy farms).
I had plenty of friends who lived on these farms so I got to see the
conditions of these farms on a regular basis. None of these farms were
as filthy as what I have seen in the posted pictures. Yes, they might
have had a "trash" pile or two, but it was not where the animals were
kept. They also had burn piles to dispose of some of the trash cheaply.
Again, these were no where near where the animals were kept. None of
these farms had piles of animal waste piled up in the animals living
areas. They might have had areas where they compost the waste, but
again, it was no where near the animals. All of the animals living
areas were kept clean. When it came to food and water, yes, they might
of had a problem with freezing, but everyday they would go out and
give new food and water. That or they would heat the living areas just
enough to keep the food and water from freezing. Lastly, at these
farms, they never crammed animals in a space so small that they could
barely move.

Now, at these farms that I am using as examples, some of them had over
50 animals. Taking care of them was a full time job and was done only
by the family that owned them. This could have been up to four people
that took care of these animals. They didn't get more animals because
they knew that they couldn't take care of them, and when the family
became older and their help diminished, they STOPPED working the farm.

Now, just from what I have heard not only from these posts, but from
people I personally know that have visited Doug's farm, he doesn't have
enough help to care for all of the animals. That or the help he does
have isn't doing enough. If Doug has as many animals as posted, every
time someone visited the farm, his help should have been there taking
care of the animals. Again, taking care of a farm is a FULL TIME JOB.
It takes more then an hour or two to dump out old food and replace
with new, dump out frozen water and replace with fresh, change out old
bedding and clean up the waste. Instead, all of the people who have
recently visited Doug's have said that they had to wait for the
granddaughters to show up.

I realize that this business is probably the only income Doug has
coming in, but everyone retires at some point (unless they die young).
Most of the time retirement comes about when a person can no longer
do the job that is expected of them. If Doug is no longer capable of
taking care of his farm and the people helping him are not capable of
fully taking care of the work for him, then the time has come for him
to shut down. Sadly, if the conditions are as bad as stated (again I
have not personally been to the farm, but hope to visit) if he doesn't
choose to stop on his own, then he is going to have animal rights
people step in and force his hand.

I know that no one wants to go through the hassle of shutting a farm
down. Getting Doug to admit that there is a problem (which he did
when he called a ferret rescue for help) and working with the animal
community would be the ideal solution. Now I know that he has offered
to sell the ferrets cheap. What he needs to realize is that even paying
$35 a ferret is a lot when you have to consider the finances needed
to care for each ferret that is bought. All the ferrets have to be
spayed/neutered and treated for what ever medical conditions they might
have. Also, a lot of time and energy needs to be put into them so that
they can be placed into homes.

Finally, as for some of the comments that Mr. Killian made, you should
be ashamed of yourself. You are accusing people of being illiterate
when you yourself can not even type out a word properly or form proper
sentences. Now I am not saying that I am the best writer, but I don't
go out and accuse someone of this either. And where do you get off
saying that the people who wrote letters of their experiences at Doug's
are "lower middle class city snobs"? You have no right saying this when
you don't even know the people that wrote these letters. Frankly, from
your posts, you seem to be the idiot here. I would highly suggest you
re-read your posts twice before you send them out. And yes, this group
is more concerned with the animals then of Doug. We all hate to see him
suffer, but it is worse to see an animal suffer. Doug can help himself
(well at least to some point and has his family to pick up the rest)
but the animals can not help themselves. Why not try to do some good
and if you do know Doug personally, help him take care of these animals
(whether you actually get in there and help clean up the mess or you
help him make the decision for him to call it quits). Sometimes it
takes a friend or a loved one to get a person to realize their
limitations.

Keep up the good work MFRAN.

Erin

[Posted in FML 5544]