I am just venting and asking anyone who would be willing to help to do so. This weekend I went to the the Milwaukee County Zoo with my cousin. (Milwaukee is concidered to be one of the top zoos in the country so I think that I was even more concerned about the situation.) We headed over to the petting zoo since they have ferrets there and I always take the opportunity to visit ferrets (even with my own at home). Well we got over to the petting area and I got very irritated. They had two ferrets. Beautiful and well cared for animals. That was not the problem. The problem was the sign that they had for the ferrets. It said "Ferrets Habitat: Woodlands, and Fields". They were domestic ferrets that they were showing and they DO NOT live in woods or fields! The rest of the animals had the word domestic after the name, but not these poor ferrets. Maybe I am over-reacting, but all I could think of was that some uninformed person who had a ferret might head to the zoo and see this. Well if for some reason they needed to "remove" their ferret from their home, they would not look for a shelter, but think that they could just release it into the woods and it would be fine. I mean the zoo said ferrets lived in woods and fields. The image of my Ian starving in the woods comes to mind and haunts me. I am planning on sending a letter to the zoo asking them to correct the sign for the ferrets and I ask that others do the same. Maybe this is a little nit-picky thing, but I think about the people in CA who have been fighting to get people to understand that ferrets are not wild, and here we are in Wisconsin (where are ferrets can live in freedom) and we are helping to perpetuate the myths that enslave CA. It might be of use to those in CA to have a major zoo in the country make changes about the information that they disseminate about ferrets. The CA Government needs to have as few legs to stand on as possible! The address for the Zoo is: Milwaukee County Zoological Gardens 10001 W BlueMound Rd. Milwaukee, WI 53226 Thanks, Katie, Ian and Cloud in the memory of One-Eyed George -- Katie [log in to unmask] Technology Information Coordinator/Lecturer Carroll College 100 N. East Ave. Waukesha, WI 53186 Phone: (414) 524-7682 Fax: (414) 524-7139 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ "Now we start to get into the 80's. Dangerous, dangerous ground..." -John Taylor, Duran Duran MTV Unplugged, December 1993 [For George (April 1995 - June 21, 1996). He was a ferret for all times. And would have loved the 80's. Keep on dancing my little one...be it to Duran or Garth or the choir of angels from whom you just stole those bells ;-D. Ian and I will see you soon. I promise to always check the dishwasher before starting a load...] [Posted in FML issue 1646]