>Marshall Farms has lay people off the street perform the surgeries on
>the ferrets in a kitchen like setting without sterilization techniques
>necessary to prevent infection or spread of infection.
 
Marshall Farms actually just hires people off the street who have
absolutely no training as vet techs, send them to a kitchen-like setting
and pays them to perform surgeries on ferrets?  Just what is a kitchen-like
setting?  Does that mean there are stoves, ovens, and stainless steel
cookware hanging from racks?  Or does it mean the room is tiled and
filled with stainless steel tables?  Both industrial kitchens and surgical
settings have similar constructions for a very good reason -- both are easy
to clean and sterilize.  What is the exact source for the information on
this allegation?  Specifically, who made these allegations as statements
of fact?
 
>You can read about it yourself on-line.  Just check the archives.  It
>will give you the exact info you need to read the parti cular newspaper
>article on-line.  I believe that the vet is a reknowned author of a ferret
>veterianarian book concerning surgery and diseases.  She said also that MF
>had only vets "on call" for all of the ferrets at the puppy mill..
 
Please, don't stray too far from the truth.  The "newspaper article" is not
an article from a newspaper -- it is a PeTA press release on a PeTA website
that has been demonstrated over and over to be filled with misinformation,
and deliberate distortions of the truth.  Once again, who is "she"?  It is
not enough to say "she" and "a vet" -- names are needed.  Who is the "we"
constantly referred to?  Since you don't speak in the royal third person,
"we" implies more than one person, or even an organization.  Please
identify the other people or the organization.  Give verifiable facts to
back up your allegations.  Prove that what you claim is true and not just
more misinformation designed to malign an organization that you have
philosophical differences with.
 
>and boycott MF if you feel the articles compel you in that direction.
 
And let's be absolutely clear on what a boycott of MF would entail.  Since
MF ferrets are used in labs to develop and test the vaccines, medicines,
and treatments that are routinely used to protect ferrets, that means a
true boycott of MF has to include not vaccinating ferrets and avoiding
almost all medical treatments.  And, that is just on the ferret side --
remember, there are many human medicines (most cold and flu medications)
that are tested non-leathally on ferrets.  So, a true boycott must also
inclue cold and flu remedies.  And, we must not forget the premature and
micropremie babies -- ferrets are used to teach doctors to intubate those
infants.  Does anyone really want to urge the parents of a child no bigger
than the average ferret not to accept every effort to save that child's
life?
 
It is easy to shout BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT -- as long as no one thinks of the
real-life ramifications of what that would actually mean.  Does anyone
who is really and honestly a lover of ferrets (or any other life, for
that matter) want to return to the Draconian methods of rabies testing?
Remember, that means taking a ferret accused of drawing blood by design or
accident and cutting off their head to test the brain for the rabies virus.
Boycotting everything MF only causes more harm to the ferrets than to MF
itself.  Simple minds seek simple solutions to complex issues without
regard for the ramifications of those solutions.
 
It is time to stop the "beat MF at any cost" mentality.  The truth is they
are neither good nor bad, they just are.  Yes, they should be held to
standards and punished when they don't uphold those standards.  But, they
should not be subjected to lies and deliberate misinformation campaigns.
Enough is enough already.
[Posted in FML issue 3445]