Since my posts yesterday have likely angered a few people, I thought I should make my position clearer. I am very supportive of shelters. I realize that a shelter is expensive to run, and that most shelter operators spend a lot of their own hard earned dollars caring for the ferrets they take in. I also applaud the shelters that do their own fundraising activities to help pay the costs. However, I personally become annoyed by advertising. I am surrounded by it all the time. Everywhere I look, someone is trying to sell me something or get me to donate money. I do realize that advertising dollars keep down the costs of many things. Sites like Google likely wouldn't exist without advertising dollars, or would be a pay service. Magazines and newspapers would cost us a lot more if they didn't carry ads. But, it still gets on my nerves. Everyday my snail mailbox is crammed full of catalogues from places I have never ordered from. I am constantly getting spam email. I never answer my phone any more, because I get several calls a week from people asking for donations for charities or trying to sell me something. Almost every website I visit has ads on it, even though I have several pop-up blockers. Commercial breaks on TV and radio keep getting longer and longer. And the newest thing - paperback books I read now have advertising pages for other books from the publisher interspersed among the pages of the story. I joined the FML about 10 years ago, which was before there was an EBAY and before so many shelters had websites. Advertising was not allowed, because there was a quarterly advertising issue where shelter could list what they carried to sell. Yes, there were some pleas from shelters for financial help, but usually when there was some unusual circumstance. You were far more likely to see a shelter asking for advice on how to help ferrets survive ECE. Again, I am not singling out any shelter or individual, but there are some people who advertise a lot more then others. There are shelters out there with EBAY stores or webstores that rarely if ever post on the FML about them. And, because I appreciate not being badgered by them, I am far more likely to buy from them. I am a big supporter of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and so I am not suggesting that BIG ban advertising. But, I am saying that I am far more likely to seek out and buy from people who are more low key about their selling, and there may be others out there who share my feelings. I used to read the FML top to bottom every day, because it had a lot of useful and interesting stories and information in it. Now, I read over the list of message headings, and if nothing interest me, I don't even bother to read any further. When I do read it, I skim through skipping over many posts, especially if it is from someone I associate with advertising their wares. My time is too precious to me to waste on things that will only annoy me. Again, these are just my own opinions. I am not writing this to point fingers, just to let people know where I stand. -- Danee International Ferret Congress Health Issues Coordinator http://ferretcongress.org ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know! For more information visit: http://www.ferretadv.com You can help fight ADV! Visit: http://help4adv.terrabox.com/ [Posted in FML issue 4849]