Additional Details From the Investigation
In addition to the horrific living conditions, pain, and suffering that these ferrets endured, PETA’s investigator also discovered the following:
- Ferrets who fought—likely as a result of stress and crowding—were left caged together to, as one supervisor put it, “work it out.”
- Many ferrets suffered from advanced eye infections and mastitis, a terribly painful and often fatal infection of the mammary glands.
- Ferrets were denied hiding places, mental stimulation, or any form of enrichment as well as relief from the wire cage floors for their sensitive feet.
- Cages were only cleaned every three to six weeks, forcing ferrets to eat and sleep just a foot or two from piles of feces built up in cages—an unnatural condition for any animal. Triple F’s ferret factory-farm barns were filled with the overwhelming odor of feces, urine, and rotting carcasses on the floor.
- Temperatures in Triple F’s ferret factory-farm barns—where the stench of feces, ammonia from ferrets’ urine, and their rotting carcasses was overwhelming—reached 99° F, leaving thousands of ferrets in danger of heatstroke and death.
Read excerpts from our investigator’s notes.
PETA submitted formal complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Bradford County District Attorney Dan Barrett’s office. PETA also filed complaints with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pennsylvania Board of Pharmacy regarding Triple F’s storage and use of controlled substances, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture regarding the company’s routine exposure of live ferrets to ferret carcasses, and the U.S. Department of Labor regarding Triple F’s apparent violations of worker safety and compensation laws. Triple F is the subject of several federal and state investigations.
The ferrets at Triple F need your help today!
