If I have fundamentally changed the idea behind anyone's statements by summarizing their comments, I apologize, and please let me know. Otherwise, I've tried to summarize points that I'm responding to (instead of quoting entire messages). Kymberlie Becker wrote: >Someone with time [should] volunteer to do a web site. [...] The web site >will be the place the volunteers go to find instructions, updates, etc. >about the issue. [...] Make a list of things you want to accomplish; An updated information resource like this is not a bad idea. Look at the CDFA page, the Kodo page, and many others as examples. However, is this an informational site about MF practices and the issues centering around MF, or a site dealing with actions, updates on progress, etc? A combination of both wouldn't be bad but it'll be hard not to ruffle some feathers no matter how diplomatic the site is. But am I volunteering to do it? Yes, why not. Specifically, though, I'd like to find out what people want to see on this site and what, in addition to Kymberlie's ideas, they feel would be useful to see (information that isn't duplicated elsewhere). I've got the time, the web space, the server, and (already) one volunteer to help out who can be objective (he thinks I'm wrong frequently enough, at least :). Who else wants to help out? >get someone to be granted a tour of MF. Figure out how to get a study >going into the relation of illness/MF ferrets. BTW, don't try to do the >study to prove MF is the cause, do an impartial study. I agree that we should try to get someone to tour MF. Dr. Williams, maybe? The above mentioned volunteer knows a vet student at a very good veterinary college, and I'm going to soon get in touch with her to find out a good faculty member to contact there about doing ferret studies. I feel it's important that the study take place in a lab or a university, primarily because lots of vets and certainly some breeders would be much more likely to call into question a study done in individual ferret owner's homes - how do they know the factors were similar? How do they know that different types of lighting didn't affect the results? Etc. A willing lab could standardize the conditions much more easily, and I'd bet the study could even be done empathetically - we're not testing the effects of nasty drugs on these ferrets, we're testing other factors, ie - - Flourescent lighting / altering "day length" with artificial lights - Early neutering vs late - Food? - Vaccinations - Ferrets from different regions & breeders - Communicability (ie, lymphosarcoma?) Anyway, at this point in time I'm trying to find out what researchers out there are working to discover the causes of health problems in ferrets. They'd be the most likely to be interested first, and to be able to suggest other researchers who'd be interested if they couldn't themselves. Btw, we don't even know for sure that someone somewhere isn't doing work like this already! So, in short, getting ferret owners to do this study is a good idea but unfortunately won't yield truly scientific results that vet schools and the larger breeders could take seriously enough to implement necessary changes in their operations. :( >through and pay for a ferret. If raising the cost of a ferret went up to, >say, $200 or so (that is, MF raises it's cost, not the pet stores >themselves), that would be more money for MF to use for studies, You'd have to talk to someone at MF or to an economist to find out why this would or wouldn't work. My guess was that a price hike like that wouldn't be absorbed by the buyer's market, and that not enough higher priced ferrets would be sold to make up for the loss in revenues caused by a price hike. Gasoline is a "necessary" commodity that can absorb huge price hikes because people won't do without it. The number of people that won't do without ferrets is much smaller. :) But you should call MF and see what their take on it is, maybe. Tatia Johnson wrote: >There is a greyhound race track near me and when the dogs are too old or >unable to race any longer, but still healthy, they are adopted to homes as >companion pets. I had this idea last week. I'm looking around currently for information on who originally founded the greyhound adoption program and how they managed to start chapters in practically every state across the nation. My hope is to talk to them about how to advertise such a program and how to sell it to the source of the animals (racetracks or MF, whoever). I'd like to find out stats on number of greyhounds retired each year, # adopted by these programs, etc. Again, to summarize: I am trying to get in touch with researchers and vets who can point me to groups or universities who'd be interested in hosting a long-term health problems in ferrets study. To this end I am going to talk to one veterinary college and have contacted the AFA for any possible resources they might know of. I volunteer to put together an "MF Issues" web site along the lines of what Kymberlie discussed but I'd like ideas on what else it should include as well as a few more volunteers. Last, I'm researching how the greyhound adoption folk started their program and hoping to be able to use that as a guide to start a similar retired breeder program with (just MF? Other breeders, certainly) ferrets. Melissa [Posted in FML issue 1998]