BIG, this is my last post on this.  Swear.
 
I've now received quite a few vitriolic "hate e-mails" accusing me of two
things, neither of which is true:
 
1) I'm being raged at for "bashing" Marshall Farms.  Since people are
often incorrectly accused of "bashing" on the FML (I do read it even
though I don't often post), I'd like to clarify something.  "Bashing"
would be an accurate description if my post had simply read, "Marshall
Farms is stupid.  They're irresponsible," but without backing up anything
I said.  What I DID was offer my opinion about Marshall Farms, based on
my own sad experiences and observances regarding their ferrets, backed up
with factual evidence such as the fact that two complaints have been filed
against them by animal rights agencies, as well as the fact that they were
kept out of France based on their own history of extremely poor animal
care.  I did not "bash" Marshall Farms by offering subjective statements
that could not be supported.  I offered you concrete facts about their
policies and procedures.  What you choose to take from that is up to you.
 
2) Despite the fact that my post mentioned my own six Marshall Farms
ferrets, whom I love dearly, other e-mails I've received since yesterday
accuse me of being "against ferrets" and one person seemed to think I
wanted all Marshall Farms ferrets destroyed on the spot.  This is not the
spirit in which my post was intended; frankly that's not how it was
written either.  Too many of you seem to think that someone cannot dislike
Marshall Farms without disliking the ferrets themselves.  This is simply
not true.
 
What I was attempting to get across is this: That these animals that we
love so much, that bring us so much joy, do not enter this world kindly,
and their trip from their mother to our loving arms is one so filled with
carelessness and danger that the ones who even make it to the pet store
alive and in reasonably good health have already beaten some serious odds.
 
I do NOT wish to see everyone get rid of their MF ferrets.  I also am 100%
aware that other breeders and farms practice similar shipping methods and
their ferrets arive in ill health, or worse, dead.  The reason MF gets
targeted by most ferret lovers is that they are the largest in the country
- in many areas, as other people's posts verify, MF ferrets are the ONLY
ferrets available.  It's certainly true here in Massachusetts.  The large
pet store chains such as Petco deal exclusively with MF which keeps them
in business.  Our shelters are filled almost exclusively with MF ferrets.
 
My main hope in posting some of the facts about MF was to make more
ferret owners aware of what's going on, and maybe get on board to make a
difference.  My hope was that people with healthy, disease-free MF ferrets
would realize that their ferret's good health means that their ferret is
one of the lucky ones, but there are thousands more not so lucky.  My own
6 MF ferrets have undergone 5 surgeries for adrenal disease before the age
of 4, despite the best food, best vet care, clean cage, lots of exercise,
etc.  But even if they had never had so much as a little head cold, I
would still be concerned about the other MF ferrets who weren't so lucky.
 
My post was an attempt to educate, to show that there is a real problem
and if enough ferret owners get involved and show that we care how ferrets
are bred, shipped, and treated before we get them home, it can make a
difference to the animals we all treasure.  And starting with MF is a good
idea because, again, they're the LARGEST.  These things trickle down.  If
MF is made to change their ways, other farms will follow suit because they
won't want to be the next target of ferret owner's interest in their
practices!
 
I LOVE ferrets, I have 3 years invested in working with ferret groups
across Massachusetts including ferret shelters, and believe me, you don't
know the magnitude of the heartbreak of Marshall Farms carelessness until
you've talked to a shelter mom who's lost over 300 MF ferrets in 4 years,
all too young, to diseases they never should have gotten.
 
Please, don't take my posts to mean that I think MF FERRETS are bad.  I
think MF is bad.  The ferrets are wonderful, whether they are healthy or
not.  My own MF ferrets are struggling with adrenal disease, insulinoma
and lymphoma (all before they were 4 years old) but it doesn't change a
thing about how I feel about them.  Nor should anyone else turn their back
on a MF ferret.  But change begins with, among other things, asking Petco
to refuse to carry MF ferrets until they clean up their act.
 
I don't wish to put MF out of business, but they need to stop doing what
they're doing.  Believe me, consumers have more power than they know.  If
droves of ferret lovers contacted the CEO of Petco and refused to shop
there until Petco addressed Marshall's procedures and refused to carry any
more MF ferrets until MF makes changes and stops shipping ferrets at 3
weeks old, hairless and newly neutered, I can guarantee you that would
make a difference.  This is a capitalist society, when you send a message
that menaces a company's pocketbook, it sits up and takes notice!!
 
Love your ferrets, and please don't hate me for loving them enough to
want to get people involved to stop an endless cycle of bad breeding and
needless suffering.
 
-Heather
[Posted in FML issue 3623]