Re: Ferrets illegal on military bases Sorry to hear about your situation. You might want to have a friend off base hang onto your buddy for awhile (and visit plenty) until you can convince whoever made the rule to change it back. It would be a tragedy if your buddy was destroyed. Re: BFFs (to Jessica, Justine, and Hal) I do understand your concerns, but I haven't come to your same conclusion that the old BFFs should be released. First of all, even if the old BFFs could reproduce, they wouldn't have a chance because they'd all be dead (the 14 released on June 5th all died within a few days). If they are dead, they can't reproduce, and the older gene pool won't help the species survive. In captivity, I would hope that if they had cancer and started to suffer that they would be humanely euthanized. (I would prefer to be quietly put down than eaten alive with some beast 20 times my size ripping my limbs off etc.). If it were more a fair fight and they could run like a 2-3 year old that would be fine,but these guys are slow,can't see due to cataracts, have broken teeth, etc. I don't think anyone is trying to make BBFs pets or love them to extinction, but rather prevent them from suffering when they don't stand a chance against the coyotes. It would be ideal to have a facility where the BFFs could have like an acre of land with little tunnels and everything else they need, but have it enclosed so predators would be kept out. And if there were some way to make the facility so that people could watch the BBFs, we could educate the public about the BFFs (and all endangered animals in general) and help increase public appreciation for them. This might even increase public contributions to the breeding program. If you saw the videotape from Carolyn Kinsey, then you should have seen that those older animals were not aggressive, and more importantly, not afraid of anything. We have raised them in captivity and robbed them of a normal life for 4-5 years. They are not prepared for what faces them in the wild (mentally, physically, or socially). I completely respect your opinion, but I don't follow your same train of thought and have not reached your conclusion. Sincerely, Katrina Ramsell [Posted in FML issue 1237]