Melissa suggests that developing ferret breeds would be a good thing. I couldn't disagree more--not having specific breeds of ferrets is one thing the ferret community has over dogs, cats, etc. Look at dogs for example. So many breeds of dogs are defined by traits that are directly related to potential health problems: heads so massive that pups must be born by Ceasarean; bodies so long the animal suffers back problems; shortened faces that lead to breathing and jaw/tooth problems; oversized eyes; too short legs; the list goes on and on. The problem is that to develop a breed, you must exaggerate one or more traits to distinguish it from others of the species. Individuals that don't posess that trait to the correct degree are eliminated from the gene pool, no matter how healthy and how wonderful the personality. The gene pool narrows and genetic diversity suffers. A limited gene pool is a bad thing. Undesirable characteristics that may or may not be related to the desired traits (health or behavioral) crop up and are difficult if not impossible to eliminate. [Sidebar on the Black Footed Ferret breeding program: They started with only 18 animals, and do extensive genetic testing to match breeding pairs as dissimilar as possible. To do otherwise could be disasterous to the survival of the species.] I have nothing against someone developing a line of ferrets that are "black sable, plush coated, large, stocky in build, with amazing dispositions." But to turn that line into a breed, all outliers in any of the traits would have to be culled, and no fresh blood could be brought into the line. To my mind this is NOT a good thing. And one more thing: Go to a dog or cat show, and look for the plain ole dog or cat. Can't find them can you? If you don't have a pedigree, you are unwelcome. Once of the nice things about ferret shows is that sometimes a plain ole ferret takes first place. Noone knows who the mom and dad were, it may even be a Marshall Farms ferret. Now that to my mind is a GOOD thing! Linda Iroff Oberlin OH [Posted in FML issue 3325]