I do not think that you grasp the difficulties of ferrets. They need a LOT of human interaction. They need darkness. They need protection from heat. They need vaccinations. There are some really terrible complications with whole ferrets and breeding that can happen and such a setting would never work for that. They need medical care and a lot of it (plus most of their diseases are treatable with operations or medications so it gets expensive with the cost one year in our family -- with about a quarter of the number of ferrets that you mention -- being about half of what a decent new automobile would cost). Please, read about ferrets extensively. I suggest that you go to http://www.ferretcongress.org and use all of the links there, and also read all the sections at http://www.ferretcentral.org. I can tell you that from what you have written you really do not seem to have any grasp of what conditions ferrets need, or of most of their care needs. When you have learned and when you have a workable arrangement for them then I suggest that you begin by finding a shelter in Europe which has two or three sterilized adult ferrets who have not been abused for you to learn about ferrets by having for a number of years. Are you familiar with the expressions "My eyes were bigger than my stomach.", or "Biting off more than he can chew."? That is what I think that you are trying to do -- to undertake something that is beyond the conditions and level of information which you have. The best thing if a debate gets too overwrought for someone's taste is to just scroll past it; yes, I know that few unusual access routes don't allow that which is a shame, but most people have the option. One thing I have noticed over the years is that some of those debates which are turning into fights go away fastest when they are just ignored. I think a lot of what happens is that people don't necessarily write or read clearly. Sometimes that causes someone to have a tender spot aggravated, sometimes it truly and deeply scares someone that needed care won't be provided, sometimes it makes people not realize that a statement is general rather than targeted to a specific individual, etc. In a forum this size such difficulties just are inevitable. It's like having a small town in your living room sharing in a conversation but not hearing tone or voice, not seeing body language, etc. Unclear or misunderstood language on top of that just makes communication harder. Ironically, I have noticed over the years that the worst misunderstandings don't usually happen when there are language barriers but usually happen among primary English speakers. I think that perhaps when English is a second language we might all be more likely to assume that something may just not have been expressed well. [Posted in FML issue 4105]