This is one of those rare times when I completely agree with Sukie. Seriously, Marshall gets all the blame here simply because they're the biggest target. When a ferret has a tattoo, some people immediately make the assumption that it'll go adrenal by age 2. If it happens, then that's their scientific evidence that applies to all MF ferrets. If it doesn't happen, though -- like, say, if it lives to be 6 or 7 -- they don't notice. Same goes for when a non-tattooed pet shop ferret has severe medical issues at an early age. It's like a nurse noticing when more car accidents occur on a full moon once or twice and assuming there's something occult going on, even though it doesn't cross her mind when there's a quiet night on a full moon. And being angry at MF because they don't donate some acceptable amount of junk to shelters? Come on. They don't have any obligation to give you the time of day -- especially considering shelterers are always haranguing them on the internet and expecting that to accompish anything besides antagonize them and make them less likely to listen. I'm overweight, but I'm not expecting McDonald's to give me money for exercise shoes just because I ate there too much. And as for that PETA page: (1) the alleged events happened eight years ago (2) if you're using PETA as your only source for anything, you've fallen right into their trap. The fact is that, as it stands right now, we (the ferret scene) need MF more than they need us. We have done a worse job reaching out and educating consumers about ferrets than MF has. I just got a ferret and I feed it MF food, but its poop smells terrible! Oh, but look! MF has this Bi-Odor stuff you put in the water to get the smell away! Problem solved! Meanwhile, you go to a shelter with the same question, and you'll get real-life versions of Patty and Selma from the Simpsons talking about how horrible a pet owner you are and how you should change this, do that, rework your entire lifestyle, etc., etc., etc. Yeah, sheltering is tough. I'm sorry. But if we want to have the same rapport with the grand majority of ferret owners that MF enjoys, then we need to seriously improve our PR. It took decades of work and the intervention of the government and several celebrities to get dogs and cats out of (many) pet stores. If you want ferrets on the same level as cats and dogs in the US, it'll take that same amount of concerted effort. Making a strawman out of a company that doesn't even deserve the worst of it accomplishes nothing. Posting anonymously since I know what happens to your private mailbox when you post a contrary opinion on the fml. [FG] [Moderator's note: Actually, that's not always an acceptable reason for an anonymous post, but this one was factual and non-inflamatory. Maybe not everyone will agree with the message but it is well said, and given a couple of circumstances, I'd say anonymously posting was ok. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 5310]