Hi everyone,
I am happy to report that Hershey is getting over the lethargic behavior
his food poisoning brought on.  The diarrhea is starting to firm up.  His
dehydration is also ending.  Bill, Hillary, and Leroy have chosen the IAMS
Kitten instead of TF so they really weren't affected.  And BabyGirl has
never chosen to eat Totally Ferret so she is just upset that her baby
Hershey was sick.
 
Dee's Buddy and Lucky, both recuperating from recent surgery, are also
getting over the diarrhea.  I'm sure the food poisoning didn't affect
their recovery.  That's sarcasm folks.
 
Jack and Jill have shown the good sense to dig the Totally Ferret out of
the bowl and onto the floor in search of the IAMS Kitten which does not
smell bad and make them sick.
 
My friend "Ferret Mary" reports that hers also are experiencing diarrhea
and one is also vomiting.  She has always mixed her TF with two other high
quality foods and will now have to throw out a very large quantity of
perfectly good food to get rid of the bad.
 
While this is going on, someone on this list privately e-mails me that
they think P&G is bad because they test their food with animals and that I
must be a bad person because I buy the P&G product which she would never
do.  She further documents the poor quality of IAMS since it is sold in
grocery stores and Wal-Mart.
 
Is Kodak film sold in Wal-Mart less quality than that sold at the drug
store or camera shop??????  How about the magazines they sell at a
discount?????  [Moderator's note: Actually, sometimes, yes.  BIG]
 
Someone else has the arrogance to e-mail me that I don't love my ferrets
if I feed tham anything except Totally Ferret.  I should cut TF "slack"
because it wasn't their fault a supplier delivered them bad ingredients.
 
Forgive me folks, but what am I buying from Performance Foods if not the
assurance that they check the quality of the products?
 
Yes that's a rhetorical question.  And, yes, I'm being sarcastic.
 
I'm offended by the hypocrisy that faults P&G for animal testing and then
claims Totally Ferret is superior because they animal test.
 
I read another of today's posts from someone who had the problem last
spring.  I remember that person posting on this list what a terrible
company Marshall Farms was for shipping her a ferret with ECE.  She knew
that because her vet told her and he was the best.  When the problem
didn't go away, she went to another vet who had a different diagnosis.
She even posted that, while denying the problem existed, Marshall's paid
the vet bill.  Her comment was that they must be guilty or they wouldn't
have paid the vet bill.
 
NOW she posts that the problem was with TF food.  How can I believe her?
Was it MF or TF???  If it was the food, why didn't she post that last
spring and offer her apology for the bashing of Marshall Farms???
 
Hypocrisy.
 
It destroys the credibility of the posts on this list if it is not
exposed.
 
I read today's post from another who tips his hat to Performance Foods
for being "honest".  Sure they admit it after 3 months of food poisoning
ferrets.  I'm impressed with that integrity.  For those who don't read
well, that was sarcasm.
 
I have to assume the poster is also tipping his hat to EXXON for publicly
admitting they did a bad thing with the Valdez disaster.  What's fair for
one is fair for the other.
 
If you want to debate me privately, I welcome it.  Just be ready to offer
factual evidence to support the argument.
 
And don't attack me personally by telling me I'm a "lazy complainer"
because I don't drive 6 hours to get a different bag of TF with no
assurance it won't be bad too.  One of the posters to this list did just
that.  And with a self righteous arrogance that Richard Nixon wished he
had.
 
Which is the perfect illustration of the hypocrisy I posted about to begin
with.
 
I would be the hypocritical one if I didn't mention that while writing
this I had a very nice conversation with Pam from Performance Foods.  She
explained that the food will be replaced under the guarantee with no
questions asked.  That's all I can ask.
 
She also apologized to me for the fact that my friend's pet store wasn't
contacted about the problem so he could remove the product from his
shelves.  She says the distributor in Northern Illinois was notified but
they didn't pass the notification along.  I accept that as truth.  I
accept the sincerity of her apology.  I don't think it was good business
but I make allowance for them not being a traditional "big" business.
 
I also accept the sincerity of Marshall Farms when they offer to replace
defective merchandise and the sincerity of P&G when they tell me they have
no intention of lowering the quality of IAMS.  I have no more reason to
distrust the "big" guys than I do the little guy.  Unless I'm a prejudiced
person.
 
That goes past hypocrisy and moves into bigotry.
 
And that was the point of my post about hypocrisy.  You can't allow
Marshall's to be bashed and cut TF slack for doing the same thing.  It's
hypocritical.
 
My point was intended to shed light on the truth instead of simply
accepting the "everyone knows" arguments so frequently offered on this
list.
 
For those with a grasp on reality, this is the reason you should never
depend on one particular brand of food for your ferrets.  It doesn't
matter if it's the best if they go out of business or ship bad product
which poisons your animal.  Don't tell me I don't love my ferret when I
offer them a choice of high quality foods.  It's those who don't that are
showing a lack of concern.
 
Further, don't try to get me to believe that it's good for Performance
Foods to test the product but Marshall Farms is bad for allowing their
ferrets to be used for testing.
 
It's hypocrisy.
 
And thanks to Jim Higgins and MC (the Rude One) for also trying to keep
some truth in the posts we read each day.
[Posted in FML issue 3116]