My wife and I were near the Petco (located by the super wal mart at 6140 University Drive NW, in Huntsville, Alabama 35806 (256) 837-7800) this week and we were both disturbed by what we heard and saw. They had approx. 13 or 14 ferrets in one of those glass cases. The glass case is approx. 3.5 feet or so square and about 20 inches high. Several of the ferrets looked sickly and ranged in ages from about six weeks to about 15 weeks ( a guess). All 4 corners of the cage were full of poop and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in days. There were only two water bottles in the cage, one very small one hung low for the small ones and one big one hung way up high. The little bottle looked empty so I went over to one of the employees and told him because the little ones couldn't reach the big bottle. Well he went right over and opened the cage with his key and the bottle was full and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then my wife wanted to hold one of the babies and he started talking to us. First he said " you DON'T want to hold these they BITE. We have tried everything to stop it and nothing works. These aren't MF ferrets. These came from another breeder because we can't get any more from MF because of the Humane Society lawsuit in the courts over MF's mistreatment of ferrets" ( anybody out there heard of this? sounds like a bunch of hooey). We talked further ( he did most of the talking, I just asked questions like I didn't really know much about ferrets) and the more my wife got interested in a BEW male the more he tried to discourage us from getting it. At one point he said " I shouldn't tell you this secret but I will and you probably won't want them after you hear it". To which we replied " what??" Then he said " these ferrets are half mink and that's why they are so much trouble and wont act right." At this point we weren't sure what the hell was going on or what he was trying to do so we just left. It was really strange. He talked like he was the manager ( he is short, heavy, Caucasian, military short hair cut, wire rim glasses around late 20's early 30's). I felt so sorry for all the little ferrets, only about five looked healthy. There was one baby albino male and he was so thin he looked like a female. It just broke my heart. I don't know what to do or who to call about this. What I saw bordered on malfeasance, at least in my opinion. If any of you are from the north Alabama area please stop in and take a look. I was so mad I wanted to put him in a cage and make him walk in his own crap. What an idiot. If he had had an angora he probably would have told me it was a ferret bread with a guinea pig. Geeesh. Perplexed in Alabama Weezzer & Pennie & the Rug Monsters ( Peppin, Sheeba, and Grendel) [Posted in FML issue 3128]