6/9/95 To Jim, and general information: re: 6/7 post.. I hope Cody is doing better. I know how difficult it is when our furry children are not feeling well. I lost literally weeks of sleep when Timmy was at the edge & declared "terminal" by the ama type guidelines. I'm still saying prayers for you all. I think I succeeded in deleting your fax # from the BFF distribution list. Sorry I knocked off the wrong # by accident the first time, this 5am stuff doesn't help the brain. On the BFF situation, It seems that the FWS is doing the typical mis information routine. I think we're getting off the track of what is really important, government deception & cover-up. What we're talking about is older debilitated ferrets that were not designed to be released into the wild from the start, but intended to parent younger ones for the release. The original batch that were sent to Pueblo for "pre conditioning" prior to being released to the wild included ones that had such severe physical disabilities that they could not be expected to survive in the wild. (such as blind in one eye, little or no teeth, 3/4 of the group examined were missing canines (these are essential for survival as they are the killing teeth)). They stopped Carolyn from examining the rest of them as she was finding "too many problems". Dean Biggins told one of us that they refused to give the medical records to Carolyn as "they did not want to give her any more ammunition". Why else would someone ship an animal with terminal cancer or a life long history of disease level coccidiosis, a highly contagious disease that would be a hazard to healthy animals. The particular animal with this condition failed preconditioning and in fact died before release. What the government trying to do to us is the typical divide and discredit that it does to anyone that catches them at lying and deception, and doing what should not be done! What follows is not a flame or personal attack in any way, I simply am trying to address mis information that is being given out... I wonder if someone mis used some terms in talking about the video tape to you.. (I'm not sure, but I think it was me that wrongly used the word tame, and I apologize & take full responsibility for the error). They really should not be called tame like a domestic ferret, like you stated "they are just looking for food" by climbing on the keepers, sniffing at his beard, etc.. The accurate word is habituation and loss of wariness. Actually climbing on people, sniffing at their beard, not biting bare hands which are putting medicine down their mouth is not wild behavior. If you tried to do this with a common squirrel they would have no part, much less a "wild" critter like a bobcat. What is being exhibited by the ferrets that have known people as non threats, sources of food , etc., is lack of "wariness", or habituation. The point is not that they are not "tame" enough to give kisses, if that's what you're looking for, but the fact that they do not avoid people, and when eating, do not seek cover, which is natural behavior that prevents them becoming coyote food! In ferret years, I'd guess it's like they have spent all their lives with human contact, perhaps some 60 human equivalent years, and in the case of many of the Wyoming ferrets, in cages. To expect them to know to avoid coyotes and other threats after all their lives not having to worry about such things really does not make sense to me. What I'm most confused about is why you posted personal information/ derogatory opinions about Carolyn in public? It came across like an attempt at discrediting her. I think the charge of "caring too much" is a fine line, sometimes used to describe people that want to interfere with inexcusable behavior on the part of people in power. Hitler's generals that would refuse to kill the Jews were shot for "caring too much". The fact that FWS lowered the original release numbers from 100 to some 14 + 14 or less as they look for medical problems says to me that they indeed were going to "dump" not just old and not well suited ferrets in the wild, but also ones that as Bruce Bessken, the director of resources for Badlands park described, ones with broken and missing teeth, tumors, problems as bad as your Cody has! Someone from FWS confided that "we've often come under criticism from the public to the extent that we've become numb to it". This is what has caused me concern enough to stay up 'til 5am too many nights. I have spent some 22 hours on the phone, multiple conversations, with not only Larry Shanks, but also Pete Gober, Bruce Bessken (chief of resource management for Badlands Park), Bruce Blanchard (acting federal director of the FWS), Bruce Babbitts asn't George Franzen (secretary of the interior), and LeChe Moore (interior dept. fraud, abuse & waste Hotline), who thought enough of what's going on to launch a formal investigation into the matter. In spite of this, I would not make the statement that "I think I have the most complete stories so far". I'm not trying to convince anyone to believe what they don't want to believe, but I would advise caution in listening to government "information". They told the soldiers at ground zero during the atom bomb experiments that "there was nothing to worry about". The same when they injected radio active materials into their bodies to just see what would happen. The same with the Rocky Mountain nuclear bomb factory just outside Denver that is causing all sorts of environmental damage, and hazard to humans. The very depot where the BFF's are raised in Pueblo, has ground so contaminated from dumping toxic waste for 30 years, that the government has to buy bottled drinking water for the people living in a 25 mile radius! The same government however, feeds raw, untreated water to the endangered ferrets they are trying to raise to keep from extinction. This is not a clear demonstration of intelligence, in my opinion. Respectfully, Gary [Posted in FML issue 1221]