I don't mean to be provocative or anything: but a couple of things in the last ed. struck me as odd. Let me say, first of all, that because I live in NC (home of the Nastiest Living Epidemiologist In Government) and because I have actually had a ferret bite a teenager (situation saved by an understanding MD, God bless him), I am completely on the side of campaigning against government confiscation of ferrets. But in the last edition, I saw the word "murder" used in conjunction with this kind of confiscation for lethal testing; the word "martyr" followed in a posting, in a different context. These words trouble me: "murder" refers to the taking of a human life for purposes of perceived gain or hatred. A "martyr" is someone killed explicitly for inflexibility of belief or for integrity of conviction who then becomes a symbol. While ferret deaths are tragic, irrational and must be resisted, this kind of language tends, in my mind, to suggest a loss of perspective. Words matter. I think it would be well to reserve words such as these. When "murder" means any killing of some loved creature, I have no powerful language to use when they come for my son. When "martyr" applies to my four-legged, no matter how unjustly killed, I have no more words to apply to saints, heros, or messiahs. Final note: I have written my letter to his honor of Michigan, and stand ready to wax rhetorical on behalf of any alleged malefactor on four legs. otter [Posted in FML issue 1605]