>And I'm also arguing with Sukie, I'm just taking this opportunity to post >something that's been on my >mind. OOPS! I'm such a dunderhead! OH Sukie please don't nail me with a Jersey snow ball for this. This was a typo. I meant to type, "I'm NOT arguing with Sukie," Good grief. Thank you for not thinking I was. (shew, wiping sweat off my brow). >There really is a problem with folks tending to want some"thing" fancy >when that "thing" is actually a living creature who can be harmed by >being purposely bred for coloration of other features rather than for >health, longevity, and personality. Yes there is, and that one petstore was very honest with me about that. When I saw that the standard kit did not sell and was stuck in a cage in that store, I almost didn't blame the store for requesting very light colors and fanciful marked ferrets. You know? They do have a business, and she was caring... she hated seeing that kit stuck there. >Since farms like MF do reimbursements or partial reimbursements for >early health problems they have to balance that against the demand from >specific petstores or distributors for fancies. Yes, and this includes deafness, even though it is very costly to them. >It is ESSENTIAL to have important data FIRST, like that on handicaps, >health or longevity reductions, behavioral changes, etc. BEFORE >spreading around a mutation just because it seems neat because it is >different. Of course. But isn't it funny how humans still to this day do so purposefully over and over again with various species of animals. Indeed Bob is right, in that the private breeders lead the way. >Population genetic problems are much easier to create than to fix. You know what? Here is where I'm guilty. I tend to oversimplify things. I tend to look at things, and point and go... "there, there it is (the problem), now make it vanish". I tend to not understand why it's so hard to undo something that seemed to easy to do in the first place. Thank you for explaning about the hidden alleles better so that I and others could understand that. I think that one thing for sure is going on... either a) Marshall Farms still has some WS breeders (openly), or b) we have mucked with the ferret gene pool so much, that there are tons of hidden alleles. I think B is true regardless, of whether A is true or not. That's so sad to me. So what will happen with those who have hidden traits and alleles? Will they eventually "wash out"? And is that good? Or will we be able to get a handle on it and be able to reverse what we started? For example do you think when breeders see a high rate of blazes born, that they then cull that line? What action do you think they take, or do you think they take non action? Are there many private breeders still breeding blazes, or ferrets with suspicous markings? Gosh, I was hoping that this had slowed down. I have personally seen at least one known breeder where it has not. I do hope those of you who breed, will take reconsider this. I know they are gorgious. I know they are sweet animals. I know that deafness doen'st seem like a big deal (and it's not, when the animal is in the best of circumstances). But the problem lies when you are gone, and the animal doesn't, end up in the best of circumstances. The problem also lies within the unknow of what this gene manipulation does. If you do a google search on Waardenburg Syndrome and on the KIT gene itself, you will see the research done on dogs, rats and humans... and how you are not just fooling with "color" and "markings". It goes much deeper than that. So bulldinkies to that practice. Wolfy Wolfy's site has MOVED to: http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com/ [Posted in FML issue 4064]