Alicia: You are not wrong to find the Baltimore Sun column by Kevin Cowherd disturbing at all. His so-called humor was not based on anything more than false stereotypes and a mean spirit. If one were to apply such stereotyping to other humans, it would be called bigotry and would be roundly decried. Humor designed to perpetuate ignorance is not humor at all, despite what some people would have you think. Those same people would have you believe that Mr. Cowherd's writing is a form a satire. It is not and they and he, are wrong. Despite what some would have you believe, newspapers are not great bastians of literary style. Most newspapers are written for a readership skill of sixth or seventh grade -- and yes, that goes for the major papers as well as the small papers printed in small backwater communities. You don't find much satire written for sixth graders. What should be really and truely disturbing to the ferret community is that some people claimng to be proponents of ferrets actually defend this type of blatant and deliberate misinformation. Mr Cowherd's column coming as it did at the height of the Kodo situation, could have been an opportunity for all ferret supporters to educate the public and the media through reasoned and rational responses. Instead, those who did respond were denegrated and ridiculed by others in the ferret community. Mr Cowherd wrote his column out of ignorance and a mean spirit. Reading his other columns, it seems that is his stock in trade -- a mean spirit and ignorant remarks masquerading as so-called satire. His supporters in the ferret community do not have the defence of ignorance of the facts, therefore I cannot understand the source of their support. A few weeks ago during the Kodo debacle, someone quoted Dr. Deitrich Bonhoeffer's final letter to his friends, not knowing the source. Dr Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who opposed Hitler's Nazi regime. Friends discovering his imminent arrest urged him to flee, he refused and sent them the following paraphrased explanation: "When they came for the Communists I said nothing, because after all, I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and not being a Trade Unionist, I remained silent. Then they came for the Jews and again, I said nothing because I was not a Jew. And then, they came for me and there was no one left to speak out." The good pastor died at the hands of the Nazis. His message is simple and one of the few maxims by which I guide my personal life. I speak out against bigotry and deliberate misinformation. For years, I have quietly worked locally to educate others about ferrets and other unusual pets. In the beginning, there was a great deal of misinformation that had to be dispelled. Happily, those misconceptions in this area have died out as people learned the truth about ferrets and other pets. Mr Cowherd and his supporters -- in and out of the ferret community -- are wrong. His column was not humorous, it was harmful to the true nature of ferrets. It was more harmful because Mr Cowherd knows enough to be aware that what he was writing was not humorous exaggeration, but deliberate falsehood. His design was to draw laughs from small-minded people by denigrating ferrets and those who choose to share their lives with them. Humor based on harming others is not funny, it is bigotry and hate-mongering whether the focus is ferrets or racial, ethnic, or religious minorities. I am both shocked and saddened that anyone in the ferret community could for one minute consider supporting such a wrong course. Scott [Posted in FML issue 1989]