Maybe other farms ARE worse; I wouldn't know.  I'm sure there are farms
that are worse but does that really excuse MF completely??  They are the
biggest.  They have the most money.  They are tied up with groups like
Huntingdon Life Sciences whose activities and crimes have animal lovers
so angry they're car-bombing the employees' cars!  (which I'm not saying
I agree with; I'm offering it as an example of how angry people can get
over the activities of certain companies).  Marshall Farms has a lot more
against it than just the conditions of the animals' cages.  They are a
company in a position to take the high road and not participate in the
cruel torture of animals and they choose to make money by selling animals
to HLS so that they can get Palmolive dish detergent forced into their
stomachs through a tube, until they die.
 
I also feel that vigilantism and illegal activities are not the best way
to go and in many cases they draw unwanted, negative attention to their
own causes.  But in a society where animals' lives are considered pretty
worthless and even some of the most large-scale and disturbing crimes
against animals get a slap on the wrist, some people feel like taking
action another way.  The organizations who are supposed to regulate animal
safety and welfare do not do their jobs effectively or thoroughly in many
areas of the country.  Sometimes people who believe something horrific is
happening and that there is no recourse and no way to stop it, take
matters into their own hands.  Sometimes this has tragic consequences
(the mink they keep releasing in the UK).  Sometimes it means that beagle
puppies get happy homes instead of an esophagus full of Liquid Drain-O.
 
For me it's not just about dirty cages.  Sure, Melissa, it'd be expensive
to lauder bedding.  But there are other ways of making ferrets comfortable
that don't end up with them learning the opposite bathroom behaviors their
new owners expect (and MF assures new owners in their literature and on
their website that it will be "very easy" to litter-train baby ferrets).
There are disposable and biodegradeable alternatives.  Marshall Farms
makes a tidy profit selling all forms of bedding for ferret cages, with
the instructions on the package about how ferrets "need soft bedding in
their cages for comfort".  Apparently not if they're still owned by MF
and living on the MF lot.
 
But if we differ on opinions in what MF "should" do with their cages
that's fine.  My objection to them goes beyond just the ferrets.
Marshalls could make pots of money selling beagles as pets.  Instead they
sell them to HLS, a group most dog rescues and animal shelters would like
to see wiped off the face of the earth.  HLS does not test cancer drugs or
life-saving transplant procedures on these dogs.  They are contracted
with, among other groups, Colgate-Palmolive to conduct toxicity tests on
these beagle puppies.  For as long as they can manage to stay alive, the
beagle puppies have tubes jammed down their throats and toxic soaps and
chemicals forced in, as much as their stomachs can hold.  Tests measure
how long they can stay alive after ingesting pints of cleaners and laundry
detergent ingredients.  This is done despite HLS's own researchers
admitting both that "these toxicity tests are accurate 15-20% of the time"
and members of the scientific research community in general saying that we
know enough about the toxicity of these chemicals that we do not really
need to be doing these tests.
 
Marshall Farms knows where their beagles are going to end up.  Rather than
sell these puppies as pets, they send these sweet and gentle dogs to a
fate far worse than death.  "Far worse" because these puppies' internal
organs begin to break down from ingesting toxic substances long before
the animals actually get around to dying.
 
Ferrets are my main love, but all animal life concerns me.  I fully, FULLY
realize and accept that animals will always be sacrificed for testing.
Some of this saves lives.  My own ferrets received good vet care and
expert surgeries because other ferrets were practiced on and dissected, as
well as used in the rabies shed-study.  My brother received life-saving
heart surgery because the procedure he underwent was tested on pigs.  I
am not a militant animal-rights activist.  But Marshall Farms projects
an image of itself on its website and on its products that gives no
indication of the stuff they're actually tied up in.  The fact that they
produce ferrets that seem prone to cancers and diseases before they hit
the age of 4 is just further proof, in my opinion, that this company
cares nothing about animals.  In which case they should be manufacturing
things that do not have souls and feelings.
 
I have no doubt that there are ferret farms and ranches that have worse
conditions, smaller cages, and unhealthier ferrets.  Will that make me
back off and say hey, MF, you're OK 'cause someone else produced a more
unhealthy ferret and kept it in a smaller, dirtier cage?  No.  If someone
else wants to rest on that, that's your right.  But don't expect me to
simmer down because MF isn't "as bad" as somebody else!
 
Several times on the FML there's been statements to "go look at other
farms" and "go after all farms at once".  However often the same people
are reasserting the fact that most farms won't let people on their
premises, making it pretty hard to know how I'm supposed to compare them!
 
I don't even know of many other farms.  I focus on MF because they're
the largest, also because in Massachusetts, where I live and where my
experiences have taken place, MF ferrets are our exclusive pet store
ferret.  Our shelters teem with discarded MF ferrets.  If we were swamped
with unwanted PV or Triple F ferrets, they might spark my interest and
draw my ire.  But I have no experience with those ferrets and I haven't
seen any pictures of their farms.  It would be presumptuous of me to
assume facts not in evidence on farms whose ferrets I don't own and whose
facilities I have not seen or heard about.
 
God I'm tired of ferret people...FERRET people, for God's sake...defending
MF just because it's not the "worst" that there is.  That somehow excuses
everything they've been cited for?  That makes up for the hundreds of
pregnant beagles that died in a fire last year because despite 3 warnings,
Marshall Farms refused to bring their fire alarms up to code and remove
materials that they were told were a fire hazard?  For me, it's like
having to listen to an African-American person say the Klan is not so
bad because Aryan Nations is worse.
 
-Heather in Massachusetts
 Closely supervised by Dante, Nikita, Dusty, Beanie, Boomer, and Rocky
[Posted in FML issue 3656]