Mary, You made the point that someone who would buy a ferret for the first time should do research first, in response to my point that pet stores are the first exposure to ferrets for many. In 1993, when I first saw a ferret and became interested in acquiring one for my household, I did research ferrets. I called all over the city I lived in, asking pet stores if they had any books on ferrets. The response I got time and again were 'no'. I wound up going to the library, where they had two books on ferrets. One was written in 1929, and was about the use of ferrets as mousers and how to house them in pens outdoors. The other was the first book written by Dr. Wendy Winstead. And although I know she was one of the first people to get people interested in ferrets as pets, the amount of information about what we now consider excellent care was minimal at best. Neither book mentioned anything about shelters or private breeders. As far as I know, Modern Ferret started publishing in 1994, and probably wasn't all that widely available for a few years after that. Now, we know that Ferrets by Fancy Publications is even newer than that. When I got my first ferret, I couldn't find anything labeled 'ferret food'. There were no litter boxes made for them, cages specifically made for them were hard to find. I found 1 pet store that sold two ferret products, the SuperPet nylon hammock and the nylon hanging tunnel. I had to buy a cage that was homemade (it was pretty awful by today's standards, made with wood) try umpteen different things for their litterboxes, used a cut up modified milk jug for their bed. I had no clue that they needed furball remedy, that ferretone existed, what the signs and symptoms for any diseases were. I guess God was watching out for us, because I sometimes wonder how those fuzzies survived my lack of knowledge. Now it's 1999. I can go to just about any pet store and purchase books, magazines, products, high-quality foods. I can search the internet and get lots of information easily. What made the difference? The popularity of the ferret as a pet. Plain and simple. More people now own them, so the information is being passed on, and the pet supplies industry saw the need and the means to make money. Those of you who are new to fuzzy parenting have no idea how isolated all the old-timers were in their love for fuzzies. I'm sure a few people on this list can tell you just how isolated they were 15 years ago. >The education process - buying from a responsible breeder, not a pet store >IS the education process!!!!!! An education process that will go a long >way to bring down numbers of the 20 million animals destroyed every year. >And while its going to be tough to get pet stores to give up selling >animals - that's no reason to cave, give up, accept and participate. Ok, here's a question....how do you reach the people needing the education? Hope that they'll show up to shelter open houses? A few, maybe, but mostly, the advertising for these reaches only people who are already involved in the ferret community. Ferret shows are one way, ferret awareness and education days at a place people who are interested in getting their first ferret from are another. In both cases, we are using PetCo to get these educational opportunities. Come on, folks, the world ain't a perfect place. Does this mean that we shouldn't work towards that goal? Not at all! Every accomplishment made might help give another fuzzy a good, happy life. The day that every ferret is picked at an appropriate age, and kept in the same home, being treated with the loving respect, having everything it could ever need, I'll stand up and cheer! But I know a thing or two about human nature, and you can call me a pessimist, but I don't think it's gonna happen in our lifetimes. So I'm going to do the best I can, making one life at a time better. Sherry [Posted in FML issue 2689]