Marshall Farms What you need to know about their 'business'!

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Are you thinking about buying a ferret from a pet store?  Most likely that ferret is a product of 'Marshall Farms', a large-scale ferret and dog breeding company based in North Rose, NY.  Marshall Farms ferrets are pretty easy to distinguish from most others in that they generally have two small blue dots tattooed in their right ear.  They're most easily seen from the back of the ear.  On occasion, we've also encountered some that have one of the toe-pads tattooed.  The tattoos themselves are indicators.  One dot for a spay/neuter, the second for descenting.  These procedures are performed by veterinary technicians (not qualified vets) at about 3 weeks of age.

Although we have our own opinions on the average quality and longevity of Marshall Farms ferrets, we do not wish to voice them here.  There has been much debate on how the 'early spay/neuter' effects their growth and life cycles.  Some have even proposed that illnesses such as insulinoma, adrenal cancer and lymphoma appear much earlier in life for those ferrets that have been 'fixed' at such a young age.  This debate will probably rage on until cures for all ferret cancers have been cured.

This page is meant to educate you about the deplorable business and breeding practices that Marshall Farms follows in order to bring those 'cute little fuzzies' to your local pet store.  We would hope that after reading this article that you will instead consider adopting your next ferret from either a qualified and proven breeder or ferret shelter/rescue.  There are many thousands of lovable, adoptable ferrets in shelters all around the country.  Each and every one of them deserves a 'forever' home where they can be cherished and treated humanely.

The following links are pages posted on other sites throughout the web. If you have other related articles that you think would be of interest to ferret owners, please e-mail them to us at: Wuzzles@wuzzles.com
The opinions expressed on these pages do not necessarily reflect those of 'West Valley Wuzzles'.  Any differences of opinion should be directed to the administrators of those web sites.