Well, this should be part 1 of 3 in response to some questions....
[Moderator's note: some parts combined. BIG]
 
Ok Bill or Diane - first off, I DID NOT call you a liar -- simply that a
personal phone call between you and Marshall Farms is like a "he said, she
said" situation, with no real knowledge of the conversation, or the topic --
I have called Marshalls many times -- but the conversations are simply just
not verifiable by anyone.  Secondly, I am not questioning your integrity or
truthfullness.  I guess my next question is, do you represent Marshall
Farms?  Do you speak as an employee of Marshall Farms, and as such, know
the intimate details of how their operation is run?  If not, then its your
opinion, just as all of my posts are my own opinion.
 
Well, I thought I was communicating to them!  I understood that they read
this list, so why not post it on an open forum?  Wouldn't everyone on the
FML like to hear what they have to say?  What is there to hide?  I can't
imagine that one woman could scare off a large corporation!  Again you miss
the point -- it wasn't that I didnt want your opinions, only that you post
as if you are representing Marshall Farms.
 
And as a matter of course, I am offended that I am labeled a "Marshall Farms
Basher" -- as a woman, just because I stand up for myself, a am called a
b**** (negative); if I were a man, then I would be called assertive
(positive).  Why am I so negatively labeled when all I am doing is asking
questions?  Why should I allow others to shout me down or discount my
opinions?  If that were the case, I would not be sheltering -- folks
(including my own family) think I am nuts to spend so much money on animals
that I do not keep, only caretake until I find them a new home.  I am
certainly NOT a PETA supporter, but thats off-topic and not appropriate
here.
 
>But ferrets are living things.  You can not predict problems the same way.
>If they were as bad as a small but noisy minority thinks than Marshall
>would go out of business as other ranches offered a better product.
 
You are correct -- ferrets are living things, but its really quite
interesting that you don't believe you can predict problems in animals the
same way.  If you build something right, whether its a car or breeding
stock, the effort expended into the process will pay off in the future.  If
you research the quality of breeding jills/hobs, chances are you will be
rewarded with a quality animal.  If you instead breed erratically, then the
chances are not as good that the quality will be there.  There will always
be exceptions, but the level of occurrances show the difference.
 
I would think that if you bred an animal with a known condition, that the
chances of that problem surfacing either in direct progeny or passed on
recessively are quite good, as long as the condition is genetic.  Tay-sachs
disease in people, for instance.  Renaud's disease, in my own family, cancer
in others.... predispositions will happen, but when they do, in pets, it
seems important to me to stop breeding that animal.  Thats why I think its
important to track any ferrets that are used in breeding, whether you have 2
ferrets or 20,000.  Is that irresponsible thinking?  or breeder bashing?  If
so, then I am certainly guilty of both.
 
Marshalls is the largest breeder with the most resources -- they can
undercut any competitors without losing the bottom line -- I guess you can
compare Marshalls to Microsoft, in a very general way -- (Please don't start
that war!) They simply have the market cornered now and IMO feel free to
operate in their own way, the only difference is one deals with software,
the other with lives.Most folks don't post to the FML -- so in actuality,
all that do post are a "small but noisy minority." As I have always said, I
represent no one but me.  I am not trying to build myself up or seem more
important.  If and when Marshall Farms ever decides to end the controversy,
then the subject will be truly closed.  When it is all said and done, it may
be that part of all our opinions and conjecture about Marshall are correct -
some good, some bad.  But the fact remains that right now, the only ones
that do know aren't talking, and people will continue to discuss this until
the cows come home.
 
a continuation.....
 
Zen responds:
>We said no numbers.  You did.  They keep as many as they breed obviously.
>Whether they keep others is conjecture.
But in a earlier post, Zen said:
>But a 10% sample is more than enough for a reasonable sample size - that
>would be some 8 or 9 thousand ferrets every single year!
 
I was trying to say that its seems strange that the same corporation that
destroys breeding stock when it is no longer viable, would keep ANY number
of animals as a "control group" at what has to be a high overhead cost!
 
Thanks for the refresher course in Palomino breeding -- I understand the
intricacies of breeding color horses quite well, thank you.  I only offered
that information up so that you understood that I am not a complete novice
to breeding.
 
>Attempts *were* made to rescue these jills.  Marshall offered to "sell"
>these jills for approx.  $60 a piece instead of killing them.  This offer
>was not feasible for the shelters and organizations involved.  There is no
>organization that has the financial ability to pull off such an operation
>without the $60 dollar fee either.  It makes little sense though for
>marshall to purposely put some extra competition on the market.  A loss of
>a sale to one of these is a loss of a sale....
 
Ya know, this is a funny thing right here -- Marshall Farms is going to
destroy the jill (and therefore, lose the sale and $$$) but in order to save
its life and offer it to a shelter they want to sell it????  Why?  The jills
are no longer considered viable, so why not just turn them over?  The
thought that a shelter could ever compete against Marshall for sales is
pretty amusing -- most people that call me about adopting their first
question is "Do you have any kits?" and the attitude of "its useless to me
and I'm going to throw it away, but if you want it, you have to buy it from
me?" stinks.  Even if we could only save a few --!!
 
BIG -- I want to thank you for allowing us to post -- I never realized that
some folks think this discussion is offensive -- I hope that they understand
that I am not prejudiced against the ferrets, only I have questions about
the corporation that breeds them.  I would never turn away any ferrets, I
love them all - thats why I question.  IMO, questions can lead to change,
and any changes that could assist the ferrets are more than worth the
effort.
 
Lisa, Head Ferret
The Ferret Haven "By-the-Sea"
[Posted in FML issue 2232]