Hello everyone.  My main reason for writing is that I just found
out that General Motors uses ferrets for crash testing.  Even
as deplorable as I found that to be the moment I read it, it
struck me as far worse the more I thought of it.  Watching my
little girls running around playing, they were constantly banging
into things hard enough to make me wince, and nipping and clawing
at each other in mock combat.  All this without any apparent discomfort,
much less injury.  If someone had to come up with the worst animal to use
in crash testing, a ferret would be one of the top of the list.  Puncture
resistant skin, very solid bones, and loose joints make for an animal  that
is perhaps better able to resist impact injury than any other except some of
thier fellow mustelids.  For anyone else whishing to read this article, it
was about a page in _AutoWeek_, about one week ago.  I'm planning to write a
letter to them about this, though If I don't get my printer on line, I may
not be able to for a little while.  I mean, as bad as that kind of testing
is, this has almost no applicability to humans whatsoever.  If a ferret is
injured, you know something is unsafe for people, but even if the ferret
gets away uninjured, it may still be unsafe for people.  BTW, I'm a bio-
mechanical engineer, and while I don't do any animal testing in my own work,
I do recognize it as necessary in some cases.  This clearly isn't one of them.

On a somewhat lighter note, my own ferrets have developed a very strange
habit.  They keep stealing the insoles out of my shoes.  I expected them
to steal things, but I keep finding both insoles neatly lined up under
the heater.  By neatly lined up, I mean stuck one on top of the other, with
the edges matching.  This struck me as very funny.

One last question, neither of them will use a litter box.  They just stick
their front ends in, and their rear ends out.  Does anyone have any idea why
or how to stop them?  They used to use the box at least occasionally.  Now
they absolutely refuse.

Thanks a lot.

Eric A. Schwartz
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[Posted in FML 0193]