Perhaps the paramount problem with using models to argue specific ideas
is the mistaken use of weak analogous examples presented as strong
homologous ones.  For instance, the majority of objections about ferrets
eating bone are based on other species having problems, such as dogs
wolfing down chicken or fish bones.  The question is, does this sort of
analog stand scrutiny?
 
A dog crunching up and bolting down a chicken bone does NOT compare
to a ferret gnawing on a bone impossible to swallow whole.  Dogs are
domesticated wolves and evolved a food consumption style of tearing off
and bolting chunks of flesh as fast as possible.  In contrast, ferrets
are domesticated polecats that evolved carrying prey to a hiding place
(or killing it there) and eating it more leisurely.  The reason why is
intuitively apparent.  How many predators would attack a pack of wolves
to steal their food, or try to kill and eat the wolves themselves?
Contrast that to how many that would go after a solitary polecat eating a
rabbit.  Polecats have strong instincts to hide while eating; they are a
self-preservation behavior, as well as a method to preserve proprietary
rights to their prey.  It is hard for a larger predator to steal a
polecat's dinner (or to kill the polecat) when it is eating while hiding
in a burrow or root hollow.  The instinct to hide when eating is still
so strong in ferrets that even after being domesticated for 2500 years,
many will still snatch a bite of kibble, and then hide in a secluded
area to eat it.  This is especially notable in ferrets feeling a lack of
security; some will not even eat when other ferrets, or even people, are
present.
 
This makes food consumption comparisons of dogs to ferrets a very poor
analog; a better one would be a cat.  Most cats, even large ones like
leopards, use the "haul the food to a safe place to eat" technique
similar to ferrets, and for the same reasons of self-preservation and
proprietary claims to prey.  This increase in security during mealtime is
enhanced by the lack of peer competition for a share of the spoils.  One
reason (of many) wolves bolt as much food as fast as possible is because
there are several other snapping jaws trying to bolt as much food as
fast as possible.  Cats and polecats naturally feast alone, so between
the security of hiding out to dine out and not having a pack of hungry
competitors snapping for the same morsel of meat, they can consume their
prey in a more leisurely manner.  Both cats and ferrets are slow,
delicate eaters, picking through their food to select favored morsels,
while dogs Hoover down their food without apology.  Lions, who follow a
canine pattern in terms of group structure and cooperative hunting, also
wolf down their food for about the same reasons.
 
One additional point here about dogs and bones.  A visit to any pet store
will allow you to observe racks of bones, smoked, sterilized, whatever,
for canine consumption.  Typically, they are cow, sheep, or pig in
origin.  What is remarkable in this instance is that these bones are
proportionate to a dog as chicken bones are to a ferret, in terms of
size of bones to size of animal.  This begs the question, "If it is ok
for a dog to chew on a cow bone, why is it wrong for a ferret to chew
on a chicken bone?"
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4155]