regarding my myths and misconceptions post, I have already had quite a
few suggestions sent my way via offboard mail, and thank you all so much
it appears as if this may be worth pursuing ( if it hasn't already)
I have also been corrected on one of my "title" for one of the myths, in
that ferrets don't eat rabbits ( of course they do I am an idiot LOL)
what I meant say was ferrets aren't used in rabbiting to hunt down kill
and eat the rabbits ( although sometimes they will, if very hungry or
they corner the rabbit) but, they rather used to chase the rabbits out
of the hole for the farmer to dispatch ( they are then often fed on the
resultant rabbit/or meat scraps should the rabbit be meant for the
table).. I mentioned it mostly because many people still seem to be
under the impression that the ferrets are actually meant to kill and eat
the rabbits which some people find cruel.....but, that would be silly,
as the rabbits are meant for the kitchen and dinner, by the owner, not
the ferret, so if the ferrets ate them all they would be useless for
rabbiting..)
Next, I have had a few people surprised by my mention of ferrets NOT
coming out of Egypt. see
http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/history.html
Bob Church has also done a complete and very well argued paper on this
which I don't have the location of offhand, ( one of the reasons for a
"LIST of myth busters").. but, in essence the "rumor" supposably started
because of some hieroglyphics of ferrets found in Egypt, which have since
been dismissed as those of mongooses.
And also there is the more obvious evidence that ancient Egyptians were
"obsessive" about being buried with their belongings, beloved pets, and
or statues and other representations of those pets, but no ferret
bones,nor statues, etc have ever been unearthed. Which I find as pretty
good evidence "against" the idea of ancient Egyptians and domestic
ferrets.
The idea of the "myths and misconceptions list" would be to state the
common misconceptions, such as those above, and then have a pointer to
the relevant sites/papers and or articles published throughout the web
(I wish I could find that BOB C paper now.. ), which then debunk,
disprove, or at least lead to an open mind about some of the weird facts
and fairy stories about ferrets.
Darrin
OOPS PS: just located the paper of BOB C's ( this one is rather long, I
have seen a shorter one debunking the Egyptians myth. anyone know where
the shorter one is ?) anyhow see
http://users.1st.net/hammock/ferrets/bhor/hybrids.htm
[Posted in FML issue 4679]
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