Dear Ferret Friends,
I have been reading various FML accounts about these poor kits that
Marshall's Farm has been sending to pet stores at much too young an age,
and also about some discussion here, and elsewhere not on the FML, about
suspected (not proven) cases of ECE being transmitted to ferret-owning
homes from new pet store kits.  Over the past month I have had casual
conversations with one pet store manager from a small local chain, one very
ferret-knowledgeable employee of a large chain, and one owner of a large,
popular privately owned pet store.  As a frequent visitor to all three
stores, I noticed that since Christmas, there have been very few ferrets
for sale, where there used to be a fresh batch every few weeks.  All three
people confirmed that they have had hardly any ferrets.  The large chain
employee said they had only gotten a few, but they were older and bad
biters and not Marshall's Farm.  The small chain said they used to carry
Marshall's Farm ferrets a few times a year, but their sales person just
kind of vanished.  The private store told me up front that they just were
having a hard time getting any, and this was a store that always had a
fairly large number.  This owner had heard a RUMOR that Marshall's Farm had
ECE.  And that would explain why they were shipping such terribly young
kits -- to keep up with the demand.  The theory is that ECE decimated the
Marshall's Farm stock, and they quickly isolated or quarantined whoever
didn't have it, and are breeding the heck out of those poor jills and
shipping out the babies at an unconscionable age in order to satisfy pet
stores and try to hide the fact that there is a problem.
 
Ok, don't flame or attack.  These are RUMORS and CONJECTURES.  But they are
very troubling and sound almost plausible, don't they?  Let's see if we can
have a civil conversation about this.
 
[KA]
[Posted in FML issue 2285]