>I was wondering if anyone read The great ferret race by Paul Collins, I'm
>looking to see what others thought of the book.
 
Mostly liked it for middle schoolers, and enjoyed that it rapidly got
across a true cherishing of ferrets while teaching multiple points on
compassion, values, and fairness, all in the midst of a rollicking good
time.  The ending was PERFECT, but no one should skip ahead; it really
belongs exactly where it is in the book.
 
>Marshall Farms was broke into yesterday by and animal rights group.  They
>stole both ferrets and beagles to protest their sale for research.  As I
>live very close to there, it made our local news.
>
>Lisa Olscamp
 
I hope that is not true.  The last time I heard of something like that
it resulted in most of the animals dying and the "animal rights" people
saying that was fine because it made a point!  What point?  That people
can commit genocide of certain domestic animals if they have a
good-sounding name which makes it sound like they are on the side of the
animals they are killing?
 
>I think that, just as a baseline, some of us are just looking for a little
>honesty, you know?  If MF would just say something like, "Yes, we're
>shipping them at 4 weeks, due to high demand and crowding issues," that
>would at least be an honest answer, and with the demand issue that is at
>least a defense from a corporate point of view.
 
???????????????  That sounds like what you are saying is that they are
being honest only if they agree with your age assumption.
 
I do recall one time when a shipping person shipped out too early due to
holiday demand.  I ALSO remember that person found that doing so was not
the way to retain a job.  MF was very responsive because it could be
shown that shipment went out too young.
 
Over the years what has been far more common has been people incorrectly
aging kits from their personal observations.
 
MF is not particularly different from other farms.  Nor is the health
different from most Steve and I have encountered from private breeders
in 19 and 1/2 years.  Every farm has its problems.  MFs get a lot of
"air-time" with them being the scape-goat for all farms.  You barely hear
about ANOTHER farm which has had multiple folks have ferrets arrive or be
taken directly from their farm and bring in ECE, or YET ANOTHER one that
was still selling some of their ferrets for fitch fur, or...
 
It seems to me that there are a few folks here who only want to hear
confirmation for what they assume, or who only look for documents
supporting one position and ignore the ones supporting the others.  Having
read a PILE of things on both sides, and having sought confirmation about
a number of things said, I came away with what a number of other people
who have been following this for very, very many years have:
 
1. there are things at every farm that need changing
2. some of those are affordable
3. some are affordable only if all the farms have standards imposed upon
   them, such as later shipping ages, or having BOTH full-time on-site vet
   and all neuterings done by vets (rather than either/or, as now exists)
4. almost all of the negative things said about MF are no more than
   rumors, and that's not condoning what could be corrected but instead
   is saying that what needs to be tackled are real problems at all farms
   rather than assumed problems at one.
[Posted in FML issue 3626]