"Exploit: conspicuous act or deed; make complete use of; turn to one's own advantage; utilize selfishly". Petco exploits both ferrets and ferret shelters. Petco does of course contribute their throw away/damaged stuff to all kinds of shelters, dogs, cats, rabbits, reptiles, birds and ferrets. And it's great that they do that instead of putting the stuff in the dumpster. But keep in mind that they then don't have to pay the dump fee and that either way it's a business write off for them. Cynical as this may be, Petco comes out ahead by *giving* their damaged merchandise away. Dick does respond to "negative" posts *off* the FML and on the FML and he says "We're not about to get pet stores to stop selling pets." Dick this just is not true! And I can prove it. Petco used to sell dogs and cats. Animal shelters came down hard on them and Petco stopped. Animal shelters now associate with Petco because Petco stopped exploiting dogs and cats and *now* the shelters take their cats and dogs to Petco for "Petco adoption days" and allow Petco to promote themselves as associates of local shelters. Petco started selling rabbits just before x-mas in December of 1993 and by May 31 of 1994 they stopped selling rabbits because of the feedback of the House Rabbit Society (HRS) and other rabbit organizations. Petco invited the HRS to bring our foster rabbits to the store. They invited the HRS to hold education days. They held an easter campaign to donate proceeds of "adopt a paper bunny for $1" to the HRS (trying to buy us off). The HRS and other rabbit organizations refused to accept any of Petco's malarkey and instead organized letter writing campaigns explaining how many rabbits were dumped each year and in 5 months the HRS received a letter promising that in addition to not selling cats and dogs, that they would no longer sell bunnies at Petco stores. NOW that Petco has stopped exploiting rabbits, the various rabbit rescue organizations DO participate in Petco's adoption days. We allow them to use the HRS name, thereby giving Petco credibility amongst the rabbit owning public. When any ferret organization goes to a Petco store, they are supporting Petco's sale of ferrets by letting them associate their business name with yours. Your organization is encouraging the public to buy ferrets from Petco because you're giving Petco your "seal of approval" and therefore credibility for people wanting to purchase baby ferrets. (Your name is on every flyer, along with PETCO's to advertise the advent.) Since ferrets are supposed to be the third most popular pet, that must put rabbits way lower on the scale. The HRS only has around 7,000 members and there appears to be way more "organized" ferret members than that. The HRS has rescued over 5,500 rabbits, but from the number of ferret shelters, I suspect that there are way more ferrets than rabbits that have been rescued over the years. Here's a quote from the letter I received from Petco when they decided to stop selling rabbits. Just insert the word ferret where rabbit appears. "A <house rabbit> can make a great pet. However, we have found it next to impossible to convince inexperienced prospective owners that <rabbits> need special care, attention and devotion, just like cats and dogs. A <bunny> grows up into something quite different than that warm and fuzzy fur ball that loves to be held against your cheek." And it continues: "The more we learned the harder we tried. But we just weren't satisfied with the results. We feared that too few new <rabbit> owners were not sincerely accepting the responsibility for the life of the <rabbit>. Therefore, there will be no more <bunnies> (for sale) at PETCO." It's true that I don't want *any* pet store to sell ferrets. If it weren't for Denny's Pet World, Jones and Co. and the Petco stores in the Seattle area, I and most other rescuers would not have to offer a place for ferrets to be dumped here in Washington state. I (believe it or not) *would* then refer people to local ferret breeders. If we want Petco to stop selling ferrets we can convince them to stop, but as long as ferret shelters are promoting Petco and standing alongside their bin of baby ferrets they have no reason to stop selling. By the way, there were several people who wrote about the new batch of baby ferrets at the Kirkland Petco, outside of Seattle. You are all correct (in my opinion), these babies are definitely under 6 weeks, and certainly not the 8 weeks that they claim. They are not marked as Marshall Farm ferrets and when I asked where they were purchased the manager couldn't remember and when I pushed for an answer, couldn't find the "invoice". She did say they were in quarantine for two weeks, as the last 'batch' they received were all sick and had to be returned. Gee, lets see does that mean that Petco doesn't provide vet care for the animals in their "care"? Based on my own vet bills each month, I can promise you that if they provide vet care, they'd stop selling all animals as it just wouldn't be profitable (the bottom line for any business). Perhaps because these were so young; they had a SALE sign indicating that they were marked down from $119.99 to $99.99. Such a deal! One baby was already on hold even though the person hadn't even been able to handle the ferret at that point. Let's see, my shelter *insists* that people spend time with the ferrets to get to know their personalities *before* they are adopted. Petco *is* exploiting ferrets. Sandi (long winded but passionate) Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House also DBA House Rabbit Society Seattle, WA [Posted in FML issue 2370]