I don't believe things have been blown out of proportion with not wanting Petsmart to sell ferrets. I do believe we need to have a supply of ferrets or very few people could own them. Neither would I oppose Petsmart selling them in areas where there are no other large chain stores selling them. I don't believe we should have special permits or make it difficult to own ferrets. It would be useless to try to shut down the big ferret farms. These are not solutions The obvious thing, more so than the other animals, ferrets are a cute and appealing item but a headache to many pet owners after they get them home. It is NOT just old ferrets that are adopted from shelters, I have had them in as young as 9 weeks old and many 3 or 4 months old. AGAIN if Petsmart was selling them first, I would oppose Petco because of the NUMBERS. Have you noticed, neither store sells puppies and kittens WHY. Because of the same thing. Ma & Pa stores still do, fleamarkets do, newspapers have ads. But the chains do not do it because of the animal rights group working hard to keep impulse buyers out of it and still there are tons of animals being put to sleep across the nation - how much more staggering it would be if these chains sold them. The rescue groups here in the Dallas/FT Worth area did an actual inventory in the month of June - they took in just over 12,000 animals and put down just over 8,000 (can give you exact #'s if you care to see them) THese are pure bred rare breeds to cute little mixes, kittens and puppies never having a chance in life. As much as is said against Marshal Farms, I feel they help make ferrets available, we don't want to cut off the supply, we want to cut down the OVER supply. That's all. There is plenty of profit in the food and equipment for ferrets without making a few dollars on the sale of ferrets itself. It is not going to break the store NOT to sell ferrets anymore than it broke them NOT to sell puppies and kittens. Yes they agreed to not sell them where shelters are. We already are holding educational tables at many of the Petsmart stores in Dallas. I can't say it has caused more adoptions but I think it might have discouraged some buyers from getting involved and then finding they don't want the responsibility of ownership. I can only hope. But we don't have the volunteers to put a table in every store in this metroplex to keep the store from selling ferrets or the buyer from giving it a try If another large chain store starts purchasing ferrets, Marshal Farms will step up its breeding. If you shut down Marshall Farms, then you do get into unscupulous breedings and conditions. If there is no market for the "product" Marshal Farms or anyone else is not going to keep producing more. It is the store buying the ferrets that causes the "manufacturer" to speed up production or slow it down. MF isn't going to turn down orders if they get demands for them and if Petsmart starts handling ferrets, there is your demand to the producer More education out there will help those who have ferrets and want them. It is not going to make those who buy them decide to keep them once they decided cuteness isn't everything. There will be more abandoned ferrets because the stores will not take them back. Shelters can't handle their numbers now. Is it okay to just kill off those who might have gone to the wrong home. Is that the solution so Petsmart can get some of the profit they think Petco is getting? You don't see Petco doubling up on their numbers of kits - they don't have the number of ferrets in their stores they do for rats, mice, hamsters and parakeets. THere is NOT that big of a market for them - but there can be a demand created. True, not all store bought ferrets are abandoned but a lot of ferrets are going to die because of this increase You can either help keep this problem from happening or you can drift with the tide and say later. OH what ashame, like people do with the puppies and kittens and dogs and cats at the local animal controls. Not all ferrets are babied and cuddled and loved like those belonging to people reading this email - many are just locked up and shoved in some corner, garage or abandoned room and/or then taken to the animal controls or a shelter if they find one or turned loose. THis is before Petsmart starts supplying them. How can anyone think it will get better once they are in the Petsmart stores! Millie and her Exploding Drinking it up Cleaningcrew Ferret Lovers Club of Texas [Posted in FML issue 4706]