I honestly do not know what the answer is to this dilemma. I've pondered on this for years. Some of my ferrets were "surplus to experiments" in research labs - smuggled out by the techs. My late father when I lived in the UK derived a great deal of relief after years of pain from a gastric ulcer when they discovered (from ferret studies) that ferrets had a bacterium - helicobacter mustelae - that was related to the human bacterium helicobacter pylori, and in certain conditions caused ulcers similar to those of humans. My dad in the 1970's no longer had pain from ulcers because he used the med that cured ulcers in ferrets. So I have mixed feelings. Also, I worked in a couple of research labs as a technician when I came to the US - could not use my pharmacy degree over here - so worked in animal research labs - mostly on rats, a few of which I smuggled home for pets when they were "surplus". Ironically it was because I liked animals, but was interested in pharmacology. Worked also in labs where rabbits, rats, mice, and in one place dogs were used. All for things associated with human problems. Dogs (matched specially genetically bred beagles) were used for experimental liver transplants. Ichiban, the beagle who first survived a matched liver transplant - was sent home to live his life out with a lab tech. I remember him coming back to visit wagging his tail in the lab. The donors were not as lucky. The researchers and techs did not like using the dogs but tried their best to make sure the animals were treated humanely, always completely under anesthesia for surgery, and not in pain afterwards. Perhaps not all research facilities are as careful, but animals in pain usually give bad/skewed experimental results or do not do well. I don't know if we humans would be willing to return to a world where H5N1 flu exists with no vaccine, and no treatment for gastric ulcers. I quote a section from Susan Brown DVM's website on ferrets. "One of their first uses was for the study of human influenza virus, to which they are susceptible. Currently they are used in virology, toxicology, pharmacology, reproductive physiology, endocrinology, physiology, teratology, and anatomy research. A fortunate byproduct of their use in research has been tremendous growth in our understanding of ferret anatomy, physiology and ferret disease". So there have been benefits for the pet ferrets - but I guess we humans like to get cures for ourselves but not use our own species as guinea pigs. Ferrets have replaced guinea pigs. The best we can do (in my opinion) is make sure the animals used for research are treated humanely and are euthanized quickly and painlessly. Otherwise its back to deaths/epidemics due to H1N1, ulcer perforations, and other conditions. If they find a cure for lung cancer using ferret lung tissue in tests is there any one of us who would refuse treatment? Dr Brown's website notes that this country has many ferret breeding establishments - so for the use in research the US has a large supply of ferrets. I found there was twelve billion dollars of funding for areas of research commonly using ferrets in 2006 see below: <http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/Sequencing/SeqProposals/FerretSeq.pdf> Excerpt: "The six areas of biomedical research that most commonly use ferrets (cystic fibrosis, influenza and other respiratory diseases, lung cancer, reproductive and fetal biology, neuroscience, and specific forms of cancer) are collectively responsible for over 12 billion dollars of funding from the National Institutes of Health alone for 2006. This total represents about 44% of the NIH annual grant monies." I don't like it, but not much I can do about it except appreciate Dr Brown's website comment about the benefits to ferrets' health. Meryl [Posted in FML 7093]