Q: "Do you know when the first ferrets came to the USA?"
 
A: Sometime after the invention of raisins but before the retardation of
   the CaCaLand Fishing Gestapo and Lobotomy Society.
 
Do you mean the first physical appearance of the ferret, OR do you mean the
first permanent presence of the ferret?  Consider this question like humans
on the moon.  Sure, a few have been there, but so what?  The only real
significance is the 'historical first;" until humans have established a
permanent presence on the moon, regardless if we have been there, WE ARE
NOT THERE.  The same is true about the introduction of animals.  Certainly,
ferrets were brought over as early as the first settlers, but never in
numbers enough to warrant classification as a "permanent presence."  They
were used for ratting primarily, but were also kept aboard ships and around
some buildings as mousers and ratters as well (I define ratting as the
periodic activity of using ferrets to chase mice and rats from their hiding
places so they can be killed by dogs or humans.  Mousers or ratters are
individual ferrets permanently employed to control rodent populations by
catching and eating them).  Prior to the U.S.  Civil War (early 1860s), the
presence of ferrets in the Americas was minor and I do not consider their
presence to have much economic significance.
 
This changed after the Civil War when the first ferret farms were
established.  It is impossible to exactly confirm when the first farms
were opened, but it must have been prior to the publication of the first
books on ferrets, placing it in the early to mid-1870s.  You can make a
reasonable guess on this date based on the numbers of ferrets reported
sold on a yearly basis, the numbers of ferrets required to produce such
offspring, and the time needed to establish such breeding operations.  In
other words, it is doubtful if ANY breeder imported large enough numbers of
ferrets to establish the breeding colonies reported in the late 1880s; it
is far more likely that it took 5 to 10 years for the early farms to build
up enough stock as well as to establish a market.  At this time, ferrets
make a permanent presence, have a significant economic impact, and have
remained in captivity in some capacity in the USA since then.  The reasons
for this shift in attitude is apparent; ferrets were never very useful for
hunting because rabbits in the Americas do not form the same sort of bury
as do European rabbits, thus you get little return for a lot of work.  It
is easier to just flush rabbits with dogs and shoot them on the run.  So
there was no attraction for the ferret as a hunting animal in the Americas,
and since ferrets are harder to breed than cats, they never sold well to
farmers.  So why the sudden appreciation of the ferret?  The answer lies
in three areas; the increase in post-Civil War slums as ex-slaves and
immigrants poured into the northern USA (a result of the industrial
revolution), in the storage and distribution of farming products, and in
the recognition of rat borne disease.
 
Early American ferret literature (indeed; nearly ALL early ferret
literature) places an emphasis on the ratting abilities of ferrets over
all other qualities.  Even the US government produced several Farmer's
Bulletins touting the ratting qualities of ferrets.  Rats were on the
increase because of the change to centralized storage of farming products
as well as the increase in northern inner city slums.  Government sponsored
large-scale campaigns to eliminate rats took place to promote public health
as well as reduce economic losses, and ferrets became quite popular during
the 1880-1920s (as reflected in the mention of ferrets in the popular
literature of the time).  This changed in the late 1920s-early 1930s as
ferrets were outlawed in a number of states in an effort to prevent them
from being used to hunt game.  Coincidentally, this was also when the first
cheap rat poisons were being introduced.  Now, since ferrets never caught
on well in the Americas for hunting because the returns were overshadowed
by the work, it is unlikely that ferrets were ACTUALLY outlawed because of
their hunting ability since their economic impact was always very small.
Since ferreting was probably cheaper than poisons (and safer), it is more
likely the ferrets were outlawed to stimulate the switch to rat poisons;
hunting was just the excuse to justify the law.
 
Perhaps the time ferrets were the most popular (maybe even more popular
than now) was in the decade just after World War 1.  This is when most of
the early books about ferrets were published and when the large New York
and Ohio ferret farms were established.  One possible reason is because of
increased public awareness of communicable diseases; a result of the great
influenza epidemics of the time.  Ferrets were seen as a way to control
rats, considered at that time to be horrific disease carriers.  This idea
is supported by the early ferret advertisements of the era.
 
So the bottom line is that even though ferrets were occasionally found in
the USA prior to the Civil War, they were never in great enough numbers to
justify regarding them as having any sort of economic impact.  They were
physically present, but I would not consider them to have a permanent
presence until shortly after the Civil War.  Between the late 1870s and
1900, ferrets became quite popular as ratters and for ratting, which lasted
until the introduction of rat poisons in the years prior to World War Two.
They have never been very popular in the USA as hunters (ferreting).
 
I am currently researching the hypothesis that rat poisons were being
introduced at the same time as ferrets were being outlawed and if anyone
has access or knowledge to material from this time which might be used to
support or refute this idea, I would appreciate it being forwarded to me.
 
Bob C and 16 MO' Ferret Freedom Fighters
[Posted in FML issue 3006]