Well FML folks, here I go again trying to bring some reason into FML hysteria, this time caused by the auction of a ferret skin. 1. If you don't like ferret skins for sale, don't buy them. If there is no market, and no bidders, people will not offer them for sale. If some people want them, that is their business. 2. If you don't like ferret skins for sale, don't offer them for sale. If none are offered, none will be sold. 3. Many of you have written that it is okay if the pet was preserved as a memory. How do you know that it was not? Maybe it was, and that person has since joined their pets at the bridge, and now some poor person has inherited an animal skin that they have no connection with, and do not want to just throw it away. Some of you folks really go off the deep end when anything ferret related revs your motor. Whether it is a skunk skin, rabbit skin, pig's skin, or calves skin, someone owns those kind of animals as a pet. What right do they have to interfere in your sale or purchase of those items? I personally find the sale of the skin distasteful, but that is just my opinion. I have no business interfering in the lawful sale of any item, just because I disagree. I show my strong feelings by not supporting that which offends me, I do not interfere with the rights of others to engage in this activity. I am sure there are plenty of Vegans in the world that feel just as horrified about YOU buying leather shoes, or a good steak. Do you want them to be able to prohibit you from buying those items? There has been much lambasting of PETA in the ferret world for their views when it comes to pets. Now some of you are sounding just like them when it suits you. I just have to categorize this thread with the stupidity of undercover snitches and hidden cameras at ferret shows. It is a scary mentality that these invasions are wrong, except when it comes to ferrets. The invasion of our privacy and right to conduct lawful commerce cannot be thrown out the window just because the item or animal involved is something we are concerned about. You have to look at the bigger picture people, you have to replace the word ferret with other animals, domestic or not, and see if it still makes sense. Remember the slippery slope of freedom folks. If everyone got their way just because something bothered them, you would literally have to be in a police state, and that is somewhere you do not want to be. Kens ===== To succed in Life: Work Like You Don't Need The Money Love Like You've Never Been Hurt and Dance Like Nobocy's Watching [Posted in FML issue 3017]