Maybe I'm wrong, but this is how I feel.  A ferret is a ferret is a
ferret.  I know that they come from ferret mills.  Bad, bad, bad... but
I will buy ferrets wherever I find them.  Yes, buying from shelters is
optimal, but to exclude buying from stores turns us into them...
 
Marshall/Path sell ferrets as a business, a commodity.  Outrageous, if
you love these little guys, right?  Of course.  To me, they aren't
commodities.  They're living, breathing beings.  That's exactly why I
don't care where they come from.  I don't care how they got there.  They
don't care how they got there.  They don't even know.  A ferret is a
ferret is a ferret, whether it's one that desparately needs a home in a
shelter, or one who's sitting in a pet store waiting to find a home.
They all have mischievous eyes and know how to do the war dance.
 
To politicize it is a mistake, in my eyes.  We turn into what we hate.
What, not buy a ferret just because it comes from a pet store?  And when
we don't buy it, then what?  They won't make any more?  Of course they
will.  Marshall/Path will keep making ferrets like Chevys until the cows
come home.  So what happens to those ferrets?  THOSE ferrets aren't living
breathing beings?  "We'll show Marshall/Path"... We will?  We've just
turned ferrets into a commodity that we've now boycotted.  I imagine the
ones in the pet stores that go back to "the farms" eventually end up
dead or in labs if nobody buys them.  I don't want to think about it too
much.  Makes my head hurt, and I can't change much anyway.  I'm not a
twinkly-eyed optimist.  The world doesn't work that way.  Wishing it was
only makes you "feel better"... for awhile.  What I'm saying isn't just an
emotional reaction.  It's an ugly truth that nobody wants to think about
much, and it's real.  Just like the ferrets in the pet stores.  They
aren't "concepts"... they're ferrets.
 
Buy whatever ferrets you find, wherever you find them.  Every day that ANY
ferret gets a home is a good day.  I know that we feel helpless about the
overpopulation of ferrets, and we want to do something.  But when we
selectively decide which ferrets get homes and which don't, we turn into
them.  When we decide which "commodity" is OK to buy, and which isn't,
we've just become what we hate.
 
And here's a real ugly truth.  Marshall Farms orginally bred ferrets for
lab use, and in numbers that were in proportion the number of ferrets
needed.  When they became popular as a pet, Marshall opened the flood
gates.  Whose fault is that?  Ours.  Not nice to think about, is it?
This viscious cycle has already started.  I don't know what the solution
is.  All I know is that we euthanize life in all forms everyday.  I have
nine sets of bright eyes, myself.  I'm at my limit.  Any more, and I
could not give the ones I have the attention they deserve and need.  This
is the most I could ever do.  No one will ever abuse my guys.  They will
get medical care whenever they need it.  They'll get treats, good food,
and fresh water.  This is the only real thing that we can do.  Just do
that, to the best of your ability.
 
Roary
Albuquerque, NM
[Posted in FML issue 3765]