Rumor from someone in Britain sent to Fred that MF was shut down due to animal cruelty? How would someone in an entirely different continent know squat on that score, Fred? I have seen some of MF's federal inspection reports (available by request in the past) and they always aced them -- a few minor things but they did better than the other U.S. farms. Now, I have NOT seen recent ones, but I am sure that anyone who is interested can request them from the USDA APHIS branch now just we did in the past. The one thing i DO know: I have noticed that almost no rumors or internet legends are true, and interestingly, recently there was actually an expert on that topic interviewed (but I am not sure I kept the piece so would have to find time to search) who said that something like 95% (94? 96?) of passed around internet rumors are false. Hey, Becca (Wolfy), I think I sent that to you. Did you by any chance keep it or the link to share? ---- Now I do NOT know if anyone speaking up recently is a competitive flame baiter, but some people asked me about that "sport" (sort of like emotional dog fights) so I'll say a little about it. There is competitive flame baiting which usually involves immature teenage boys (sometimes posing as females because to throws of readers) who compete on established lists to see who can get the most points for riling people up. They purposely say things that are meant to raise emotions and love disrupting lists. In some of those "competitions" the person really wins big points for list members leaving so their "points" hurt every single real list member. How does one deal with flame baiters? You IGNORE them -- totally -- and then they don't get any points and go away. So, again, I am NOT saying that anyone here is participating in that because i don't know if anyone is or is not, but when something really bad gets said instead of giving any possible flame baiter points by participating in anger with or against the poster, try to find a way to turn the conversation to a constructive approach -- like talking about what went wrong for you and the solution found (which helps everyone) and try to ignore the rest. That way even if it isn't a flame baiter everyone gets helped and the original poster gets company instead of being caught in the eye of a storm. Meanwhile, the flame baiter gets no points in the times when that is what was occurring. I have been on the FML from it's very beginning -- in fact, as far as I know I am the only one who has been around for every single issue and every single year. So, I guess I have a bit of a feel for what the FML is about and how has modified through the years. Periodically, we HAVE had what turned out to be competitive flame baiters. Every time we ignored them and used constructive approaches they went away because they could not abuse the FML membership. Now, I have seen some VERY GOOD PEOPLE (examples include Tressie and Wolfy) getting caught up in this argument instead of using a lateral approach. I like both of them, and I know full well that neither means to hurt anyone. Hey, folks, *IF* this is an example of flame baiting then you are each hurting yourselves and others just by playing along with the baiter's game. Many thanks to everyone who is using a constructive approach and taking the time to time teach others lessons you have learned: Dave, Deb, Ingrid, Terry, Renee, and anyone else who didn't add fuel to the fire but instead found ways to help all. Come on, folks! Stop biting at each other's faces and instead tell about the mistakes you have made and what solutions and lessons you learned from them to help ferrets. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6092]