>From: Heather Wojtowicz <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Others are Worse...So MF is Good??? > >Maybe other farms ARE worse; I wouldn't know. Then perhaps you need to take it from those that do. There are ranches that are far far worse than Marshall Farms. There are some that actually deserve the term ferret mill. If you continue to take the easy way out and attack the ranch that does more for ferrets than any person remaining on the list instead of worrying about them than you show a lack of judgment in our opinion. >I'm sure there are farms that are worse but does that really excuse MF >completely?? There is a concept of relative evil that you really need to learn to be content in this world in which there are millions of shades of grey and almost nothing that is clearly an issue in just black and white. No one has said Marshall Farms is perfect. No one should say any one here in particular is perfect either. >They are the biggest. They have the most money. They spend the most money on research for ferrets. >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). You are not saying you disagree with it either. You are pointing at the wrong people as criminals. Your over the top rhetoric is more suited for the criminal terrorists that are NOT animal lovers than for rational discourse. The A/R terrorists have shown in our opinion that they are NOT animal lovers. Hating people is not the same as loving animals. Many of us animal lovers are far far more upset about the terrorism than anything done by Marshall Farms. Your naive parroting of the worst of Animal Rights rhetoric shows to many of us that you have not actually researched the topic through non biased resources. >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. You are assuming that Huntingdon is evil "with facts not in evidence". Your ignorance of the whole story does not forgive your stubbornness and erroneous attacks on the best of the lot. If you attack Marshall Farms you do not diminish the sales of pet ferrets, you effectively promote the mills that are worse. This is a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Learn about the other ranches and even more the mills. You are not doing ferrets a service by effectively aiding the mills by attacking their competition. >God I'm tired of ferret people...FERRET people, for God's sake... >defending MF just because it's not the "worst" that there Many of us are tired of the irrational arguments of the cruel and evil Animal Rights movement and it's naive supporters. It goes both ways. >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. That is truly offensive. How dare you! You are supporting terrorism despite a thin veil of disapproval. You are claiming that the evil of the ALF and its ilk are somehow noble because you agree with their goal. Their goal is the violation of the US constitution and all of the American and British laws concerning the rights of pet (property) owners. Pets are property in the eyes of the law. You can agree with the law on that and still be an animal lover. We really hate when this topic comes up because as usual there is a lot of truly inflammatory rhetoric from those that admit that they are ill informed. bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets [Posted in FML issue 3657]