Ed Lipinski did cry out in apparent distress:
>God, should that he live, how can HE, SHE, or "IT" allow that we cut out
>the ferret's insides to spay/neuter them
 
It's generally considered the lesser of two evils if there are no plans to
breed the ferret in question.  You are the only person I can recall in my
over three years on this list (speak up anyone else I've missed!) who
advocates repeated breedings to a vasectomized hob over the years in place
of neutering a female.
 
>and butcher their rear ends to descent them
 
OK, I've *long* wanted to point this out to our readership and have held my
tongue.
 
On Sun, 5 Apr 1998 01:14:19 -0800 in FML #2269 you did proclaim:
>Ferrets NorthWest may be expanding its sheltering and breeding operations
>to include both forms of pet skunks.  We currently are housing a
>femalefur-farm silver-grey mink and expect to again take in pet skunks for
>readoption, as we have in the past.  If sufficient interest is shown, once
>the word gets out, we will be breeding both the American and African skunks
>as house pets for certified owners.   ...
>If anyone is interested in obtaining a pet skunk, African or American,
>please let us know as soon as possible.  Fixed and -$0.01 (got that figured
>out?) pet skunks 3 months and older will be available from our shelter at
>an estimated price of $250.00 plus taxes plus cost of shipping.
 
(For the benefit of our readers to whom english is not your native
language: "-0.01" reads as "de-cented" and sounds like "descented".)
 
Ed, please explain why you consider descenting a skunk to be acceptable
enough that you will breed them, descent them and promote keeping them as
pets, but doing the same thing to a ferret is "butchery".  If you feel that
strongly about it I'd expect you to not advocate keeping skunks as pets at
all.  (Readers: I know perfectly well that he likes to stir things up; I'm
just calling him on it.)
 
>and some have their teeth pulled out or filed down, and some have their
>claws cut off,
 
I think there is general agreement that tooth clipping/filing and declawing
are not good for our ferrets.
 
>and now we are "shoeing" them with booties.
 
The SoftPaws aren't, as I understand it, little booties, just nail covers.
From what I've read they are very well tolerated by cats, kittens and
ferrets.  I've got to try some.  (On the ferrets, not on myself.  :-)  )
 
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2708]