FERRET MILLS

FERRET BUSINESS

Animal agriculture is about exploiting and using animals for profit. Animal agriculture views animals as inventory and nothing more. Their only concern is making money from the animal. We have all heard of puppy mills and the horrible cruelties that they inflict on dogs. But so many more animals that are sold at pet shops come from mills. Rats, lizards, snakes, hamsters, guinea pigs and ferrets. These mills are all part of animal agriculture and are only concerned about money, not the animals.

My son has a pet ferret named “Twitch”. When my son comes for a visit, he often brings Twitch along. I love ferrets. They are sweet, very tame and playful. A group of ferrets is called a “business”. About a month ago, Twitch became ill, and I took him to the vet for my son. Our family vet, Elmbrook Veterinary Clinic, has great experience with all types of animals. I take my ducks to him when they get ill.  He told me Twitch probably had a cancer which is very common in ferrets. Life span of a ferret normally would be 10-12 years, but in today’s pet shop ferrets he is only seeing 5-7 years. Their life spans are nearly cut in half because of the way they are bred.

Most pet shop ferrets come from ferret mills. Marshalls, Triple F Farms, Path Valley, and Real Canadian Ferrets are the main ones. These ferret mills not only make money selling ferrets to the major pet stores, they sell ferrets to labs and universities to be used in animal testing and experiments. Marshalls not only has a ferret mill; they operate a puppy mill where they sell dogs for animal testing. These mills have multi-million dollar contracts with universities and labs, including the CDC. Medical schools will often use ferrets to teach students how to shove breathing tubes down babies’ throats.

These mills are only interested in one thing—profit. Many will spay, neuter, and descent their ferrets themselves, without a vet. Vets cost money. Ferrets are raised in overcrowded, dirty conditions. Their cages have wire bottoms and very often young ferrets will fall through the wires and be killed. The cages are stacked on top of each other, so waste from the upper ferrets hit the lower ones. Often the temperature in their quarters will reach over 100 degrees. It’s very much how factory farms and egg farms treat their larger animals.  Peta did an undercover investigation into Triple F farms in 2011  http://www.peta.org/features/investigation-exposes-cruelty-ferret-mill/

http://investigations.peta.org/animals-gassed-frozen-petco-petsmart/?utm_campaign=Pet%20Trade%20Investigation%20&utm_source=PETA%20E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert

These ferret mills practice closed colony breeding where animals are kept in cramped cages and there is often incest. It only takes a few generations of such poor breeding practices before genetic weaknesses, abnormalities, diseases, and a shortened life span show up.  A few of the diseases ferrets eventually get from these poor breeding practices are cancer, adrenal disease and insulinoma. 

Ferrets are typically taken from their mothers at an early age, packed into crates, and trucked for days or flown hundreds of miles to dealers and then to pet stores, often without adequate food, water, or ventilation.

At the pet store they are put into cages with many other ferrets. They usually do not get a proper diet or enough space to move around. Ferrets that are not sold are either killed by the pet store and thrown in the trash, used by the pet store as live feed for snakes and reptiles, or sent back to the mill for a credit. If they are sent back to the mill, the mill will kill them and they will wind up as livestock feed. This is the fate of most of the small mammals that do not sell at pet stores.  

So what can we do? We can stop buying animals from pet stores and instead get pets from rescues and shelters. We can stop buying products that use animal testing. This will put these mills out of business. It is up to us, the consumer, to show these businesses that the lives of others matter, that animals are not the same as toasters.

While the vet could not do much for Twitch, we started him on Essiac tea and he is improving greatly. He is running around and playing again. Essiac tea may not cure his cancer, but it has greatly improved the quality of the days he has left. 

Please note, I am not a vet and am not giving medical advice. 

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

 

There comes a time in life, when you must reflect upon what you were taught, whether what you were taught is true and how what you were taught affects your current life. That time is long past due when it comes to hunting. Hunting propaganda seems to be passed down from generation to generation. Talking with a hunter can be a most exasperating experience. Most hunters will call themselves “conservationists”. They will proudly take pictures or display their kills. Since childhood they have been taught that this is appropriate behavior. This is what you do to be “a man”. They then teach their children to kill and their sons learn that they are not men unless they have killed something. Daughters are taught to kill to show they are just as good as men. It is very sad, that they actually believe these things.

Hunters will call themselves “conservationists”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Hunting hurts all species. Hunters are looking for a proud trophy, something to show the world how great they are. So they kill the biggest and healthiest of the species. This leaves the sickly and weaker to breed, making gene pools weaker. Chronic Wasting Disease was directly caused by hunting. When wolves, coyotes, and other predators hunt, they go after only the sickly and the weak. Unfortunately, hunters kill these animals and leave nature a mess.

Hunters will tell you how they control populations. Again, nothing is further from the truth. As I mentioned above, killing the biggest and healthiest leaves only the sick and weak left to breed. In predators, this can be devastating to their populations. Here in Wisconsin, we have a deer hunting season. Hundreds of thousands of deer are killed in a two week period. This artificial population decrease actually increases the deer population, as pregnant deer will increase the number of fetuses they carry to accommodate the lower population. This is called “compensatory reproduction”. States with the most deer hunting, have the highest deer populations. In a natural world, there isn’t such a thing as “overpopulation”.

Hunting parties are big here in Wisconsin. Hunters get together, get drunk and go off to hunt. I imagine they get their “courage” to kill from a bottle. How can something that you have to get drunk to do be anything worth doing? You may say there is something very wrong with these people that they make a party out of killing. But this makes perfect sense. It takes great courage to go against the norm, against the status quo. Having a lot of people doing the same thing makes it easier, even if it’s doing something wrong. In 1951, Solomon Asch did a conformity study. He found that 75% of his subjects would give an obvious wrong answer just to go along with the majority of the group. So even though, these hunters think they are being “tough” by killing innocent animals, they are cowards. They need a group.

Bow hunting is the most inhumane hunting. 50% of animals are cripple and not recovered. They die agonizing deaths from blood loss and infections.

Psychology and criminology studies have shown that violence toward animals often leads to violence toward people. Albert Schweitzer wrote,” Violent acts against animals are considered recognized as indicators of a disease of the psyche that is not limited to animals. Anyone who has once accustomed to the life of any living being as unworthy of life, there is a risk that one day he also comes to the conclusion that human life is worthless.”

It is interesting to note, that the one common denominator with most of the school shootings, is hunting was big in the families of the shooters. Parents encourage violence of their children, and that is what you wind up with. Teaching children to hunt, should be considered child abuse. There is definitely something wrong with people who derive amusement from an animal’s fear or suffering. Serial killers often start by abusing animals, including hunting them.

States like Wisconsin, continue to encourage hunting for one simple reason—money. Animal agriculture encourages hunting because animals like deer, wolves, bears, bison, etc. either threaten or compete with their livestock. We can end this barbaric practice very simply. Go vegan. Let’s take the money and power away from animal agriculture. Let’s stop encouraging animal abuse. Let’s start encouraging and teaching compassion.

THE HOLOCAUST

THE HOLOCAUST

When I was a child and learned about Hitler and World War II in school, I was curious as to why so many people would allow the Jewish holocaust. It was a wonder why people would inflict such horrors on other people.  Then I read about the Milgram experiment.

In 1961 at Yale University, Stanley Milgram conducted a series of psychological experiments. His goal was to measure the willingness of participants to obey authority figures. It consisted of an authority figure, “a teacher” or someone that obeyed the authority figure, “a learner” or the person who was shocked. The “learner” was someone who pretended to be a volunteer, but was actually acting. The “teacher” would repeat words and the “learner” was to select a match to that word. If the “learner” picked the wrong choice, the “teacher” was ordered by the authority figure to administer an electric shock to the “learner”. Each participant was in separate rooms.  The “teacher” would keep giving stronger and stronger electric shocks to the “learner”. Finally “the learner” would say “I need to stop. I’m going to have a heart attack”.  The authority figure would urge the “teacher” to administer the deadly electrical shock. In 65% of the cases, the “teacher” would reluctantly administer the final shock. Reluctantly yes, but he still flicked the final switch.

This experiment was repeated by the Discovery Channel’s “Curiosity” in 2011 episode “How Evil Are You?” They found that 72% of their subjects would administer the final shock.

This is very disturbing considering we have a holocaust going on today. One that no one wants to see or acknowledge.  Every hour, 6 million animals are killed. They live horrid, tortured lives, and have violent deaths.  I think most horror movie writers base their movies on the lives of farmed animals. 

During the 12 year Nazi reign, about 11 million people, Jews, Gays, etc. were killed.  We do that to animals in less than 2 hours, every single day.

In all the wars total, throughout history, approximately 82 million people were killed. Every YEAR, 96 BILLION land animals are killed and about 3 TRILLION fish.  A holocaust of death every year.

The Milgram experiment is important, because it shows how this holocaust continues.  You allow it. It is wrong, you know this much killing is wrong, and yet you allow it. You are obeying authority. Every day we are bombarded with advertisements “Eat Meat”, “Drink Milk”. We have become to believe we need those things to live.  We don’t. In fact, many researchers have found we are healthier and live longer if we do not consume meat, dairy or eggs. The PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) has done many studies that show this. Meat and dairy causes many diseases such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, and obesity. Animal agriculture is also the number one polluter of our planet and number one destroyer of rainforests.

When you put items in your grocery cart, stop and think.  Do I really want to be a part of the holocaust? Do I really want to hurt my health, the planet, and other living beings?

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/pplate

http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2004/farm-moratorium.html