Hi, My name is Mary Sue. You don't know me. I hope this post isn't too long. I think it is worth the space. I'm just a lurker here because I have so little time to contribute in writing but thanks to so many of you I've learned a lot over the years. I hope I have been able to pass it on at local pet stores when I visit the ferrets and see people checking them out for the first time and asking questions or coming up with some really scary ideas about these "rat-things" and wondering why the price for "snake-food" is so ungodly high! I've said and done whatever it took to either set them straight or scare them away, if they were really so stupid and cruel and set on trying the "fur-rats" on for size. Thank God for Prozac, or they might have ended up in the Boa Constrictor tank as Thanksgiving "Rats" in the raw. (Sorry...my anger and my sense of humor get kind of mashed together in these situations. I'm not dangerous... really, unless I know it's necessary to save lives. I'm sorry, I digress.) I've been disconnected from the happenings on the FML now for quite awhile but am hoping that will change when I get some personal issues ironed out. In the meantime, I wanted to bring to your attention a concern I have regarding the website http://www.gotpetsonline.com/ I only came across it tonight when I was "googling" for images of raccoons online. One of the sites it brought up through an image link I followed was the aforementioned website, which at first looked interesting, maybe even helpful, until I began to dig a little deeper. I wanted to see under their Pet Classifieds listing, what kind of conditions they placed on animals listed on their site, especially ferrets. I started first with the exotic pets listing, since I figured someone was sure to think ferrets are an "exotic" since it has been a misnomer in the past. Well, I found one ad for a ferret for sale there. I also found listings of all kinds of other animals that I thought sounded illegal, or uneducated and risky both for prospective owners and the poor animals themselves (for example: grizzly bears sold as pets, Siberian Tigers, other extremely exotic and many likely illegal pets or wild animals (a number of them being sold from Cameroon, in what looks to be a cheap, [actually free for sellers], pet-trafficking trade). People here in the US looking for pet Zebras, Giraffes, many wild cats, foxes, unusual marsupials and South American animals......or how about bats, monkeys, wolves....I don't want to go on. It made me want to cry. Then I went to the small animal classification and typed in ferrets, and came up with a bunch of listings of pet ferrets for sale. My immediate concern with these listings is that I don't know if any "educated" ferret folks know anything about this site or listings and hope that those who know "best" will go to this site and look at the listings, hopefully offer truly EXCELLENT homes for these poor ferrets (and possibly other animals as well) and approach the person(s) in charge of the website with the right combination of knowledge, truth and tact so that adequate information about the operations can be extracted and good information can be offered. I also think it would be wise for someone who actually knows how to handle these things to check into the legality of the advertisements and the animals for sale. Since the last of my six ferrets had to be gently sent on his way to the rainbow bridge a couple months ago, (I still can't even bring myself to clean his condo), after untreatable adrenal disease and pancreatic cancer began to cause him obvious discomfort, Ii's even harder now than ever to see any animal (or human) suffering or in a bad situation like some of these and not do something. I so desperately want to adopt more ferrets to fill the hole in my heart and the needs in their lives, but can't, until I can once again afford to meet their needs, especially medically. Is there anyone out there that would care enough to check this out? Please? I would be grateful in behalf of all the special critters represented there. P.S. I'm not trying to get any legitimate decent people in trouble. Some of them may simply be desperate to provide their pets a good home and don't know about the FML. The website owner may be trying to provide a much needed service, (while making a living offering it, I might add...not necessarily wrong), but I question the way in which it is being done. Maybe some of you would be able to judge that better than I can? Thank you, from Mary Sue and all her fur angels [Posted in FML issue 4881]