Hello Everyone, I have put on my fireproof suit and am stepping into the arena.... I am not happy about the response to the Cowherd column. I have read both of his columns, the original and the rebuttal. They were obviously written as humor, a very low form of satire. I did not find them funny, I thought they were rather mean. BUT..the columns were his opinions and do not come under any journalistic standard for accuracy. That is what columns are, opinions. He can write anything he wants. Period. That is his job. Responding to his columns is ok. Sending in a ton of emotional email does nothing but hurt the efforts of ferrets everywhere. Writing POLITE and SANE letters will get much better attention than writing ones ranting and raving about how mean it is, how wrong it is, etc. This is the same problem with Marshall Farms. We can go politely, ask them to help us out, look at what we have to say or we can yell at them for what they are RUMORED to do, say they are cruel and get them into a defensive position. The only way to change either is by a careful use of public relations/advertising campaigne. How? Well, think of ad and pr as being a salesman's job, you have to MAKE your target WANT what you are selling. You don't go to a car buyer and tell him he is stupid if he doesn't by your car and that what he has is a piece of junk. You don't threaten him if he doesn't change instantly. I am all for people writing and stating their views, it is important. What I am not for is ranting en masse. Save that for private discussions. Ferret owners have to come across as sane and reasonable people, if not we hurt ourselves. Being beligerant and opinionated won't help. That is why I am making up a press packet. So the ferret community can send out CORRECT information, in a quiet and logical manner. A few letters that are sane and intellegent will change minds faster than a few hundred of screaming mad letters. Fact of life. And those of us who support a more calm and quiet approach to these problems are not supporting the "enemy." We are just in favor of being responsible for our own actions. Maggie Mae, en guard [Posted in FML issue 1990]