Jeff Bardwell wrote:
 
>OK, I may or may not have approved of the man's domesticated >taxidermy,
>but dumping on him to the point that he cleared off and got >defensive
>isn't exactly something to be proud over.  It's discusting.
>
>What is up with this?  This man sells stuffed animals.
>
>He just happens to do it to a pet with which you can sympathize (and
>perhaps imagine your own in its place.) and WHAAMO!  he is a criminal.
 
But, the ferret was not stuffed.  It was not skinned, mounted, embalmed,
or otherwise preserved--instead, it was a domestic animal whose carcass
was tossed in the freezer as if it were no better than roadkill, and being
sold as such.
 
Now, when I complained to eBay, I was polite and carefully worded my note
so that I wouldn't come off as an angry loony (and I cc'd this to the
seller).  I know that other people were not so diplomatic, and they deserve
to be chastised somewhat.  Letting off steam and acting like a psychotic
animal-rights activist may get you attention, but it rarely gets respect.
But still, let's be clear--the guy was trying to sell a dead pet; said pet
had died from unknown causes; said pet was not preserved, and therefore
said pet could have been a health hazard.  And selling dead pets is illegal
in some places.
 
As it turned out (I was following the saga on eBay's discussion forum),
the seller DID end up stuffing and mounting the ferret.  He then gave it
to a local science teacher for his classroom.
 
I wrote him another note, saying "Good for you," politely restated my
original objections to the auction, and politely pointed out that if he had
simply mounted the ferret himself to begin with, a lot of people wouldn't
have gotten so pissed off in the first place.  (He said he received more
than 300 emails on the subject.)  And I commended him for doing something
good with the critter (i.e., letting him be an educational tool).
 
He responded with a simple "Thank you."
[Posted in FML issue 3197]