Dear Carol-Anne and fellow FML-ers,
 
Having only seen the Ferrets USA briefly while at a show, I'd like to
mention that it is not "over 100 pages" (88 springs to mind - I'm not sure
why the page number on the last page doesn't make that obvious).  As for ads
being grouped with relevant articles, you're quite right.  The ad for wood
chips for ferret cages was right next to the article about why wood chips
are good for ferrets.  Any ferret folks out there care to thank Fancy for
giving pet shops & new ferret owners this valuable information?  Of course,
this kind of mistake is considered excusable by you since Ferrets USA is
published by a multi-million dollar company which produces over 20 magazines
and has the resources to know better.  In fact, they even managed to get an
editor to write about how she doesn't own and will not own a ferret since
she lives in California.  Fancy Publications is proud to be ignorant of the
ferret and is content to not help support ferret legalization in their own
home state (despite their vast financial resources).  Modern Ferret is
published by TWO ferret owners and their ferrets in an attempt to do good
for ferrets.  We have worked actively to support ferrets in every way we
can, from spending our weekends holding ferret education days at pet stores
to donating resources to legalization efforts in CA and MASS, to donating
copies of the magazine to shelters and ferret clubs so they can sell them to
help support themselves.  When ferret owners call us with questions or
medical emergencies we always try to help them - no matter how late it is or
how tired we are.  We still work at any odd jobs we can to help keep putting
money into the magazine so that it can grow.  So far we have only achieved
48 pages of glossy magazine with some color throughout, but we are working
to make each issue better than the last.  It has been rather disappointing
that despite our support for the ferret community, we seem to keep finding
ferret organizations that castigate us and work actively against us.  I
suppose these organizations each feel that they have the only "official"
publication for ferrets and thus we are evil usurpers instead of ferret
lovers.
 
Ferrets need a publication that depicts them as wonderful pets that are as
lovable and popular as cats, dogs, birds, etc.  if ferrets are to eventually
be regarded by the public at large as legitimate pets with the same rights
as cats, dogs, birds, etc.  (Rights as in quarantine in a bite incident
instead of kill-and-test, etc.) I think Modern Ferret is developing into
such a publication, although it may take us a while before we can find
like-minded ferret people to help us grow beyond our present limits of what
the two of us can do (everything from photography, to writing, to layout, to
scanning, to pre-press, to advertising, to promotion, to distribution, to
servicing subscriptions, to licking the envelopes and putting stamps on
them).  We're creating a magazine that to the best of our ability will
address the concerns we've had as ferret owners without publishing incorrect
or misleading information.  I suspect that unless some other ferret owner
has the money and determination to make a go of a ferret magazine, anything
else that's done for ferrets will wind up being done by people proud to say
they've never owned a ferret.  Even aside from my personal involvement, I'd
like to see at least one magazine out there for ferrets be published by
people who actually care about ferrets.  I think that's what we're doing.
 
If you don't like Modern Ferret that's fine. But we're going to keep working
on it because Sabrina, Ralph, Marshmallow, and Knuks want us to.
 
-- Eric Shefferman
[Posted in FML issue 1394]