>>What would happen if we organized pickets & protests at businesses that
>>sold Marshall Ferrets - specifying the breeding for lab purposes, early
>>de-sexing & descenting w/related problems?
>
>Don't get me wrong, I have participated in boycotts, etc. before, and
>they have often been effective; in this case, however, I don't think it
>would bring about any change.  The reason I believe this is that there is
>a large rift on these two issues
 
Also, they'd just get ones from a different large source, and all have
their own sets of problems, some worse than the MF ones (in my eyes, at
least, having 1. brought ECE directly home from a second large farm other
than MF and not having heard anything from them since about what they have
done but having heard from another couple who also brought it directly
home from that site, and 2.  not having heard yet if a third farm has
stopped selling to the fur industry though I know that third farm also
still sells to labs as does MF), so what has been accomplished?
 
The only way to tackle it is to force improvements on all at once through
improved stricter standards in keeping, treating, and shipping.  Make sure
first that they really are improvements.  You'll find a note from a vet
in past posts that the techs at some of these places do better spays and
alters than some vets due to all of their practise.
 
(Note: I have never heard of lab ferrets being used for frivolous stuff
like cosmetic testing.  I do know that they are used to develop effective
influenza vaccines and that someone here has adopted some of those ferrets
afterward.  I do know that the ones lost to testing rabies virus shedding
times was lower than the number that had been killed for testing in the
past in even one month in just one area of the nation, so that use saved
many, many lives rapidly by altering the Compendium of Animal Rabies
Control.)
[Posted in FML issue 3616]