I just thought I'd share my one experience with the USDA. I have mentioned that I got my one ferret from a breeder who's conditions where substandard. About 10 miles away from their (or any house), a long low drafty wooden building (don't think there was any heat), no windows, a few scattered low watt light bulbs (I was there at night and it was very hard to see). Wire mesh cages all around, no bedding, just breeder boxes which was where the food got thrown in through the top of the mesh, not all had food or water and stalagmites (or is it stalagtites?) of poop about 2 ft high under the cages. The food looked like rabbit pellets so I am assuming it may have been mink food or maybe Kaytee or L&M. I called the Michigan authorities who told me the Michigan law was almost impossible to enforce and was very poorly worded. There is apparently some big loophole in the wording that I didn't quite understand but he said it wasn't up to them to do this anyway. So I called USDA in Wash D.C. who said that a state can write what they want into a law (MI law says something about USDA standards) but they're a federal agency and only enforce their own laws. I managed to convince them to send out their MI inspector anyway and got her number. When I talked to her she said that she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, that it wasn't as bad as mink farms and she mentioned that his water wasn't frozen which she took as a good sign (I was there in October and she got there in January). She told him he should move out some of the manure. When I asked about bedding (it was January and they didn't have any when I was there) she said she didn't notice. Nor did she mention or notice if they all had food (they didn't when I was there and Boris would literally dive into his food bowl everytime I put food in even though food was there). She did talk to his vet and the vet seemed to think that he had "some care for his animals". I got the definite impression that had he been under USDA jurisdiction she wouldn't have written him up. He couldn't even tell me when his last shot was, they gave the shots themsevles. My take on all this is that the USDA's standards are very basic and geared toward farm animals who are going to be killed for food or fur. I thought it was very nice of her to take a look even though he didn't sell to retail - which is when you need to be USDA licensed and under their jurisdiction (or a breeder of over 200 hundred animals or something). So bottom line I wasn't impressed or comforted by USDA standards in the least, their minimums don't seem like a good deal to me. On finding their way home - Boris is sort of timid and doesn't seem as inclined to wander as far (he seems more interested in finding places to hole up) and Giesela really likes to go in one direction and keep going! I don't think Giesela, even though she seems smarter, would find her way home because she would probably travel much farther. Rabies - I am now totally confused. My vets give FERVAC-D. I thought that was the right one? Can someone clear this up? Thanks Mary, Boris and Giesela [Moderator's note: To head off the inevitable rush for tomorrows digest: FERVAC-D is the vaccine for distempter, IMRAB-3 the one for rabies. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 1700]