To Amy and Melissa: Your discussion of Marshall Farms ferrets was to me like oriental poetry. Your apparent love for the baby ferrets that you think might be killed if a number of us boycotted Marshall Farms felt to me like the wind catching the leaves of a tall full tree in a dappled woods. The sunlight sparkled and danced on the shadowed forest floor. Ferret love does that. It instills the most beautiful of feelings in us, doesn't it? But I beg of you to Please not forget the hundreds of thousands of ferrets that have been murdered by Marshall Farms and will continue to be murdered as the breeding animals-your beloved ferrets- kept in their tiny cages with sharp wires protruding languishing of loneliness and boredom are physically abused with continuous breeding that no responsible breeder on this list will allow in their ferrets. Melissa and Amy -All those ferrets are murdered. The sites to read of this have been listed. If you believe what you have written-that all that really matters is what happens to the ferrets-If you Really believe that-then allowing these ongoing murders to occur will be something you will naturally care most deeply about. Because that IS what is happening according to the Marshall Farms veterinarian sited. It is something we often overlook when we see the cute baby ferrets at the pet store. It is something we might chose to push out of our minds eye when we think of bringing home any pet store cat or dog or ferret. To one of our gentle ferret divas who inspires us and reminds us to write our words carefully: Our Amazonian adventurer: The readings so many shared with me indicate that Marshall FArms simply is going to be selling more ferrets to research whether we few thousand on this list buy some of their ferrets or not. Ferrets are replacing the cat for many experiments as they require smaller cages and are easier to handle. It is not just Marshall Farms involved in selling ferrets for research in toxicology experiments that cause terrible pain to the ferret. I have been sent lab sites that discuss the value of the ferret and its increase in lab use. This has nothing to do with people of FML not buying a few hundred ferrets at Marshall Farms. And in reply to where is the beef? A cry of same old again--YET-as late as 1998, 600 animals were burned alive because Marshall Farms did not correct the problems sited 3 years prior. An employee states that only 2 days prior to- Six Hundred -Marshall Farms animals in tiny cages being burned alive-there was a small fire due to the heating pads wiring that had been sited THREE YEARS prior and not attended to. Thankfully, We do not need the USDA to be the only source of info. We have already read of other sources. And, As late as 1999, Dr. Neal Bernard, M.D.-the president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine spoke out against the repeated Marshall Farms violations. There is more. Enough for now unless more is required. I have had several people write that they are sure that an expose was done on Marshall Farms on 20 20 or Dateline. Can anyone check into this? I would be happy to pay for the transcripts of any such show. I would be lost without all the e-mails on sites from all of you. It is because of many of you opposed to puppy mills that I have been able to put together anything. I am beyond hopeless on a computer. AGAIN-my thanks to all of you. For the Ferrets Lisette [Posted in FML issue 3183]