Like you I preferred the allele frequency shift answer for obvious
reasons -- like being blatantly correct -- but I definitely have read
things that would make
 
>D) A deliberate, conscious process of selective breeding.  Incorrect.
>Initial domestication of many animals is thought to have been accidental,
>caused simply by humans breeding those captive wild animals that acted
>tamest.
 
also correct rather than incorrect (though not AS correct as the allele
frequency shift), depending on the definition of domestication used.
Some of the biologists I have read on this do not consider the earliest
domesticated, but only tamed, with domestication coming later.  It's one
of those "If a tree falls in the forest" type of wording problems we all
know about, so I'd give the folks who took that a half point.
 
Interesting stuff.  Never knew they'd been used to hunt any furbearers.
How the heck were they used to hunt raccoons?  I know what a handful a
raccoon can be, having worked with them.  To search out winter dens?  (In
some areas of the nation there have been communal winter raccoon dens
have been documented so that would be a very profitable venture if... Of
course, once a person knows raccoon scent it is possible to find them
sometimes without anyone else's nose working for you.  We've done that
with otters, too.)
 
>C) Are vectors for dangerous diseases, including rabies, tuberculosis,
>and influenza.  Correct.  A low statistical probability is not the same
>as a lack of occurrence.
 
Unless there is something new there since then, the French research
on this which I have read recommended there that they be included in
a dead-end species grouping for rabies due to the risk of them
passing it along being so small, so the wording and related points
may not be consistent across nations.  In the U.S. the CDC does not
permit a dead-end classification (and I don't know if France still
has one) because even if there is no record anywhere anytime of a
species passing along rabies (as with ferrets the last time I heard
from CR of the CDC which was 1997) if it can get rabies then there
still is a vanishingly small chance of it passing it along.  BTW, for
anyone who doesn't know, several types of domestic poultry and pigs
are also influenza vector species, cattle are also tuberculous vector
species and anthrax vector species, etc.  Yes, ferrets can be
*possible* vector species of these, with a low probability, esp. for
rabies.
 
Also, like Bob said, the rate of serious injuries to children is low,
about the same as for domestic rabbits, but don't forget that there have
been rabbits who have removed fingers or toddlers on a rare basis so
"cute bunny" doesn't really apply.  Parents must use appropriate cautions
with any animal and children.
 
Interesting stuff...
 
BTW, when tubes were being laid at Argon and at Fermi Labs they used
ferrets with harnesses to drag through brushes to get them clean enough
to use.  Weirdly, we've been told that they didn't at Cern despite them
being used there for cabling.
 
This will be of interest:
http://www.fnal.gov/projects/history/sep2-1.html
 
It was well known but hadn't been added to the page till very recently.
 
I wonder if they were first used for cabling here or in Europe, or in
Canada, or wherever.
 
Telephone deployment began to be widely deployed in the 1880s so ferrets
were used very early for that apparently, Telegraphs were in the '70s
but Steve does recall offhand when early underground ones were used for
telegraph though he thinks it may have been before telephone.  May be
interesting to see if they were used for those pre 1880s.
 
Boy, are you ever right about some domestications happening rapidly.  I
have been racking my brains trying unsuccessfully to recall that very new
dog breed with dingo in it that is an illustration.  Think those came up
not much before that case in which a dingo was claimed (and much later
found to actually have done it when the remain were found, if memory
serves) to have dragged off a baby and killed it from a camping family.
Have heard of some Russian foxes that also fit for fast domestication.
[Posted in FML issue 4062]