In response to yesterday's posting about Marshall Farms: I can empathize with you on some level. I too have two Marshall Farms girls. My first, Chloe, was a gift from my mother, who had no idea that buying MF wasn't the greatest idea. My second, Nessie, was an abuse case. Even though she was MF, I couldn't resist taking her home because of the way she was being treated at the pet store. Both are great. Nessie was a vampire at the beginning, but she's mellowed with time and training and I wouldn't give them up for all the world. However, the whole Marshall Farms debate always leaves me clawing around in the midst of a Catch-22. If I get an MF ferret, rescuing it from the pet store, I know I am taking it to a good home where it will be loved. After all, it's not the ferret's fault it's from Marshall Farms. On the other hand, who wants to add profit to a rotten company? Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I recently got some mail from PETA that pushed me towards the anti-MF side of things. The following is an excerpt from an ad that Marshall Farms published in "Lab Animal" magazine. I hope it's okay to print it: "The Marshall Ferret These low-cost, easy-to-handle carnivores have proven suitable for a broad range of pharmacological and physiological investigations, including pulmonary, cardiovascular and toxicology studies. Ferrets are less expensive to purchase and maintain. Becuase they are are smaller, more can be housed in a given area, allowing a dramatic increase in test data and sample size. The Marshall Ferret offers your laboratory an affordable alternative." Next to this monstrosity was a similar article advertising puppies. It all just makes me sick. I'm so happy my girls are with me and not attached to electrodes somewhere. ------------------ Katy Foster "A man said to the universe, 'Sir, I exist!' 'However,' said the universe, 'the fact does not create in me a sense of obligation.'" -- Crane ------------------ [Posted in FML issue 2226]