In reference to James Makowski's statement to "help ban needless research on ferrets": Jim, I think you need to clarify "needless". Before I purchased my ferrets, I did some info gathering to determine if these pets were right for me. In the process, I turned to members of the American Ferret Association (AFA), more specifically Terry Fike and Sally Heber, and gained a lot of insight in to what kind of pet a ferret is and what would be expected of me to maintain this type of animal. Along the way I was told how Path Valley breeds ferrets as pets and Marshall Farms breeds them primarily for research purposes. Now I hope I do not re-state this incorrectly, but ferrets are promarily used for the research to combat cancer. I believe I was told that ferrets are similar to humans in the way that they carry some forms of cancer and how their bodies will handle the experimental attempts to cure them (perhaps Dr. Williams can jump in and clear this up a bit). Now, on a personal note, I have had more relatives and acquaintances pass from cancer than from heart-attacks, old-age, car-accidents and any other seemingly common way to die these days. I do not call research to cure cancer "needless" and the AFA supports this type of research. That is not to say that all of its members support the research, but the AFA does. Alan Braunstein [log in to unmask] "The above statements are mine alone and may not necessariyl reflect the views or opinions of others. I welcome any corrections or clarifications to any statements I have made." [Posted in FML issue 1069]