Once again I will try to clarify a few things that continue to be misconstrued..... 1. There is an organization named the American Ferret Association, Inc. (AFA) which is a 501(c)3 educational organization. 2. The AFA has members worldwide. 3. Some of those members are private hobby ferret breeders. 4. Some of those hobby ferret breeders have an AFA Breeder Membership. That's it. The AFA provides guidelines for good husbandry practices but there are no AFA Ferret Breeders. AFA does not breed ferrets. Individual private hobby ferret breeders do. The AFA does not regulate these ferret breeders other than recognizing them in the database as a breeder member which gives them a few perks over basic or other membership types. This is the same for AFA member veterinarians - there are no AFA Veterinarians - just veterinarian members. And this is the same for shelters - we list shelters on our website and do not require listed shelters to be AFA members, but these are not AFA Shelters. Many known ferret people wear many different hats. The AFA only has some say when you are wearing an AFA hat. What AFA has are: Governing Board Members Executive Board Members Committee Directors Committee Members Title & Specialty Judges Members There are no AFA Breeders or AFA Veterinarians or AFA Shelters or AFA Chefs or AFA Mechanics or AFA Radio Personnel, etc., etc., etc. Vickie McKimmey Director of Shows and Special Events American Ferret Association, Inc. www.ferret.org [Posted in FML 7182]