Maybe other farms ARE worse; I wouldn't know. I'm sure there are farms that are worse but does that really excuse MF completely?? They are the biggest. They have the most money. They are tied up with groups like Huntingdon Life Sciences whose activities and crimes have animal lovers so angry they're car-bombing the employees' cars! (which I'm not saying I agree with; I'm offering it as an example of how angry people can get over the activities of certain companies). Marshall Farms has a lot more against it than just the conditions of the animals' cages. They are a company in a position to take the high road and not participate in the cruel torture of animals and they choose to make money by selling animals to HLS so that they can get Palmolive dish detergent forced into their stomachs through a tube, until they die. I also feel that vigilantism and illegal activities are not the best way to go and in many cases they draw unwanted, negative attention to their own causes. But in a society where animals' lives are considered pretty worthless and even some of the most large-scale and disturbing crimes against animals get a slap on the wrist, some people feel like taking action another way. The organizations who are supposed to regulate animal safety and welfare do not do their jobs effectively or thoroughly in many areas of the country. Sometimes people who believe something horrific is happening and that there is no recourse and no way to stop it, take matters into their own hands. Sometimes this has tragic consequences (the mink they keep releasing in the UK). Sometimes it means that beagle puppies get happy homes instead of an esophagus full of Liquid Drain-O. For me it's not just about dirty cages. Sure, Melissa, it'd be expensive to lauder bedding. But there are other ways of making ferrets comfortable that don't end up with them learning the opposite bathroom behaviors their new owners expect (and MF assures new owners in their literature and on their website that it will be "very easy" to litter-train baby ferrets). There are disposable and biodegradeable alternatives. Marshall Farms makes a tidy profit selling all forms of bedding for ferret cages, with the instructions on the package about how ferrets "need soft bedding in their cages for comfort". Apparently not if they're still owned by MF and living on the MF lot. But if we differ on opinions in what MF "should" do with their cages that's fine. My objection to them goes beyond just the ferrets. Marshalls could make pots of money selling beagles as pets. Instead they sell them to HLS, a group most dog rescues and animal shelters would like to see wiped off the face of the earth. HLS does not test cancer drugs or life-saving transplant procedures on these dogs. They are contracted with, among other groups, Colgate-Palmolive to conduct toxicity tests on these beagle puppies. For as long as they can manage to stay alive, the beagle puppies have tubes jammed down their throats and toxic soaps and chemicals forced in, as much as their stomachs can hold. Tests measure how long they can stay alive after ingesting pints of cleaners and laundry detergent ingredients. This is done despite HLS's own researchers admitting both that "these toxicity tests are accurate 15-20% of the time" and members of the scientific research community in general saying that we know enough about the toxicity of these chemicals that we do not really need to be doing these tests. Marshall Farms knows where their beagles are going to end up. Rather than sell these puppies as pets, they send these sweet and gentle dogs to a fate far worse than death. "Far worse" because these puppies' internal organs begin to break down from ingesting toxic substances long before the animals actually get around to dying. Ferrets are my main love, but all animal life concerns me. I fully, FULLY realize and accept that animals will always be sacrificed for testing. Some of this saves lives. My own ferrets received good vet care and expert surgeries because other ferrets were practiced on and dissected, as well as used in the rabies shed-study. My brother received life-saving heart surgery because the procedure he underwent was tested on pigs. I am not a militant animal-rights activist. But Marshall Farms projects an image of itself on its website and on its products that gives no indication of the stuff they're actually tied up in. The fact that they produce ferrets that seem prone to cancers and diseases before they hit the age of 4 is just further proof, in my opinion, that this company cares nothing about animals. In which case they should be manufacturing things that do not have souls and feelings. I have no doubt that there are ferret farms and ranches that have worse conditions, smaller cages, and unhealthier ferrets. Will that make me back off and say hey, MF, you're OK 'cause someone else produced a more unhealthy ferret and kept it in a smaller, dirtier cage? No. If someone else wants to rest on that, that's your right. But don't expect me to simmer down because MF isn't "as bad" as somebody else! Several times on the FML there's been statements to "go look at other farms" and "go after all farms at once". However often the same people are reasserting the fact that most farms won't let people on their premises, making it pretty hard to know how I'm supposed to compare them! I don't even know of many other farms. I focus on MF because they're the largest, also because in Massachusetts, where I live and where my experiences have taken place, MF ferrets are our exclusive pet store ferret. Our shelters teem with discarded MF ferrets. If we were swamped with unwanted PV or Triple F ferrets, they might spark my interest and draw my ire. But I have no experience with those ferrets and I haven't seen any pictures of their farms. It would be presumptuous of me to assume facts not in evidence on farms whose ferrets I don't own and whose facilities I have not seen or heard about. God I'm tired of ferret people...FERRET people, for God's sake...defending MF just because it's not the "worst" that there is. That somehow excuses everything they've been cited for? That makes up for the hundreds of pregnant beagles that died in a fire last year because despite 3 warnings, Marshall Farms refused to bring their fire alarms up to code and remove materials that they were told were a fire hazard? For me, it's like having to listen to an African-American person say the Klan is not so bad because Aryan Nations is worse. -Heather in Massachusetts Closely supervised by Dante, Nikita, Dusty, Beanie, Boomer, and Rocky [Posted in FML issue 3656]