Happy Fall to us all, and kisses to all the naughty floor poopers out there. Just a reminder that without PETA, we would never have been able to rescue the ferrets in Layton, Utah that were confiscated from a hoarder pretending to board and shelter ferrets. The group holding the ferrets would not return our emails or phone calls, and the ferrets were going to be euthenized, as I understand it. The hoarder had come to the FML asking for help with lawyer fees, claiming to be a shelter who had arbitrarily had her ferrets confiscated. I had donated heavily to PETA, and made a number of purchases from items they sold for years, and was actually able to get through to several ladies who were high up within the group. They spent the money and personal resources to fly to Layton and see what was up. A number of key people in ferret society wrote me that they were disappointed and displeased that I had mentioned PETA at all. But the truth is the truth. It took vast sums of money expended, mainly by Troy Lynn (as I understand it), to disperse the ferrets throughout the country. People drove for days to rescue and transport. It was a huge rescue and the clock was ticking. The members of the FML saved the lives of those ferrets. But it was not going to happen without PETA. They discovered the truth about the hoarder and opened communications with the people who now had the ferrets and the members of the FML trying to figure out what was going on. A friend of mine just adopted a 4 year old dog. It was kept in its kennel all day and night for years. It is arthritic and furless in the spots on its body it was forced to lay on. When I spoke with the ladies at PETA all those years ago, they said that buying a living being, and then being able to do just about anything to it was worse than slavery to them. We learn of such abuses and neglect and cruelty all too frequently. These ladies believed that there should not be pets. Seeing what they have seen, I honestly do not blame them. I do not know what sub groups existed or now exist at PETA. I do not condone all their activities. But it appears that they have once again opened the door for those of us who love ferrets to glean the truth of yet another large scale ferret atrocity.. Get a box at the grocery store. Put toweling in it and a sheet over it. Play with your companion. Enhance his or her environment. Enrich it. Take it to the vet when you should. Say a prayer for the millions of animals that suffer as tortured slaves every day. Kiss your little ones and love them. [Posted in FML 7179]