I would be very grateful if "Anonymous Poster" could forward Dr McNicholas' e-mail or contact address as even though the ferret thief transpired to be a career criminal, with no affiliations to any animal welfare organisation, the legal adviser for SMWR inc. NHFA would love to exchange case history with her. I feel sure that that between them they could compile dossier on that would be invaluable to all ferret owners I apologise if any body confused the National Ferret Welfare Group that he quoted with National Ferret Welfare Society. This was not my intention infact I did not think that this society had been founded before the late 70's/ earley 80's. I had posted the qoted article, as part of an ongoing series that I and another ferret keeper, of may years standing had been posting on US sites on ferret history, changing attitudes to ferrets. I thought that this story might of been of interest to other ferret keepers, if only with the moral that persistence pays when dealing with the police and stolen pets. For the record, the criminal was find for the theft of my animals, the composition was for the rare mosaic chinchillas and the term of imprisonment was for the innumerable offences that asked to be taken into consideration. Tony Any one who wishes to reuse this should use it in its entirety [Posted in FML issue 3730]