All I can say is this: I emailed the person who accused me and my company of this, and invited her to 1. Go to my website and look at the farm picture of the hanging cages, and 2. Come visit the farm herself, and 3. Retract her statement. That is a perfect example of someone spreading misinformation with the intention of damaging someone's reputation or hurting their business under the guise of "informing or warning buyers, or backing up someone's accusations." Isn't that what usually happens in inquisitions and witch hunts? My ferret farm has a building (2 in fact, but I only use one) that is 40 by 300 foot with cages hanging from the ceiling, except for the play area that is 48 feet long and on the floor, and the platform play cage that volunteers are still constructing. If anyone had come to my farm and gotten a ferret from me, I could have given them any information that they wanted about the ferrets, such as if it was descented or not. If a ferret is not descented, I tell a buyer. Some people want a ferret descented, and other people realize that it is not necessary. I sell them both ways, according to which vet does the surgery, or by what the buyer prefers since so many are neutered after being sold. But something is wrong with the claim that a person came and bought two smelly, biting ferrets from me out of nasty stalls.....so the issue of those particular ferrets is useless. Again, go to my website with an open mind, and read it for yourself: www.carolinaferrets.net or www.carolinaferrets.com. As to our company sending out kits that are 4.5 weeks old at the time of surgery, there again, go to the site and read it for yourself. I can't argue with anyone who is convinced that a ferret is a certain age and that they are correct and then proclaim me to be unreputable breeder-- BUYER BEWARE!...... All I have is the jill, to whom and when she was bred, the date of birth on a card, the litter information, the lactation notes, the vaccination notes, and other information to reassure me that the kit was not that young at the time of surgery AND the vets (8 of them ) making the final decision. What she has as "proof" in an email from me is a discussion back and forth about a kit that I could not immediately identify because she told me that the person bringing it in was one man, when in fact it was another, prompting me to email him my best wishes for his service in Iraq (wrong guy)! The problem with the proposed changes in USDA rules is that the enforcement will be an issue, and I don't think that it will be enforced evenly from state to state, PLUS, time and time again I have had occasions when veterinarians were mistaken about ages when the ferrets go in for exams after being shipped, off by several weeks. My angoras, for example, develop very slowly compared with my regular ferrets, and any kits that are half angora develop more slowly. If a buyer wants a kit that is 5 weeks old, I have them check out their neutering costs and discuss that with them, and then they buy them intact if they want a very young kit that is weaned and can afford the surgery. Often, it is local people coming by the farm, selecting a kit, then returning the kit when it is time for the surgery and picking it back up after surgery with my vets. Half information, misinformation, intentionally misleading information.... these are the types of posts that no sensible group of people needs. I saw on one post where a buyer came to my house to pick up her "healthy" ferret. It contained all sorts of misleading information, such as the ferrets being crowded into one story cages. My goodness.....have you ever tried to pick out a ferret in a cage that is 8 by 4 by 4 with tubes and hammocks in it? And what about the heat issue? I ask for an appointment, then they usually call me lost on their cell phone, which gives me time to take them out of their cage in the air conditioning, which is usually where the kits are that are spayed and neutered and being sold are, in the summer, away from the breeder ferrets at the farm to limit the risk of disease exposure to the breeders, and put them into a smaller cage in the shade outdoors where they are very entertained for a short while by people taking them out and playing with them in the yard, making their decision while looking at all their choices clearly. But to read it the way she wrote it would certainly lead you to believe otherwise. People are not wrong to want information about ferret farms, breeding practices, etc, but all of the finger pointing and false accusations are really not what everyone needs. If anyone wants to, they can come visit the farm after the new floor dries and the cages are repositioned FROM THE CEILING, which is what you will note if you look at the pictures of the farm on my website. But dirty stalls..................?????? I guess I will wait for the next accusation to appear tomorrow. I wonder what it will be: fleas? , my husband is really a vet so why do I take them to Canada? I can't possibly raise angoras? Maybe it will be that I am really Elvis. The sky is the limit, isn't it? --Kathy Jordan, Carolina Ferrets [Posted in FML issue 5022]