We came across a particularly silly article in our local newspaper
which I have reproduced below. Our response follows.
> Markham Economist and Sun, Sunday Edition Dec. 4th, 1988
>
> Reprinted without permission:
>
> Ferrets are latest craze
> Leah Walker
> Correspondent
> --------------------------------
> Four-wheel-drive vehicles, hiking boots and cellular telephones,
> move over. The latest Markham thing is - the ferret.
>
> Indeed, that very member of the weasel family that our western
> grandfathers angrily blasted from prairie dog burrows has now become
> a much-desired pet. Fun to play with and a great conversation piece,
> the ferret has nosed his way into the Yuppie heart.
>
> In the wild, ferrets are on their way to becoming extinct. The
> rare ones left are plains dwellers who diet on prairie dog and otherwise
> keep to themselves. They've been luckier than their pals who have been
> obliterated by animal enemies - including man. Badgers, owls and dogs
> have played fairly. Man, however, has played dirty pool by introducing
> cars, guns and poison gas into their existance.
>
> Thanks to this recent wave of popularity, the ferret seems to have changed
> in favor in much the same way as the once scorned lobster, at one time
> considered only useful for fertilizer and now equally appreciated by the
> enlightened '80s connoisseur.
>
> Luckily for potential ferret owners, it is not necessary to provide
> their pets with fresh prairie dog. A high-quality cat foot plus supplements
> will do nicely. A cage is a good idea for night-time.
------------------------------------------------------
Our response:
(If you want to print this, save it to a file, strip the leading bars
(|) and type
nroff -mm <file> | col | <your printer>
|.nr Si 40
|.DS I
|December 4, 1988
|
|Chris & Patricia Lewis
|76 Sir Lancelot Drive,
|Markham, L3P 2J2
|294-9253
|.DE
|.DS
|The Editor
|The Economist and Sun
|Sunday Edition
|Markham
|.DE
|.P
|Regarding the ``Our Opinion'' piece entitled ``Ferrets can Weasel like Pros''
|by Jo Ann Stevenson
|and the article ``Ferrets are Latest Craze'' by Leah Walker, December 4th,
|1988:
|.P
|Ms. Stevenson wrote ``We published Leah Walker's musings on the favorite
|new yuppy pet, the ferret in this paper.
|She saw the ferret advertised in our paper as Pick of the Pound a few
|weeks ago and curiousity killed the cat so to speak - she just had to write
|about it.''
|.P
|Ms. Walker should have read something first about ferrets before writing
|about them.
|Almost everything she said in her article is misleading or completely wrong.
|Normally, we wouldn't bother responding to such nonsense, but ferrets are
|often subjected to such gross misinformation that public hysteria arises
|and these gentle, quiet and misunderstood pets deserve an informed defence.
|We realize that the tone of these articles was ``tongue-in-cheek'', but
|we're concerned that some of the more dangerous myths are taken as
|gospel when this may be the only information available to many of the
|readers of this paper.
|.P
|Our credentials: we acquired our first ferrets three years ago when we
|moved into our first house.
|We studied these animals through the literature for six months before getting
|our first pet, and continue to read whatever we can find on them - veterinary
|journals etc.
|We also run a ferret information exchange service across North America
|amongst ferret owners and a few veterinarians that has been in operation
|for over a year.
|And, finally, we are one of the few people in Canada to have raised an
|orphaned baby Least Weasel to a releasable age - so we know the difference
|between weasels and ferrets.
|.P
|Domestic ferrets
|.RI ( "Mustela Furo"
|or
|.IR "Mustela Putorius Furo" )
|are related
|to and, in all probability, descended from the European Polecat
|.RI ( "Mustela Putorius" ,
|also known as the ``fitch'' - the source of ``fitch fur coats'') and
|the Steppe Polecat
|.RI ( "Mustela Eversmanni" ).
|Domestic ferrets are not polecats and vice versa.
|.P
|The Latin
|.RI `` "Mustela Putorius Furo" ''
|means roughly ``furry little thief that smells bad''.
|.P
|Ferrets are not weasels (also known as stoats or ermine) either.
|Ferrets are twice as large as the largest weasel, and have completely
|different colouration.
|.P
|There is a wild animal found in North America that is referred to as
|a ``ferret''.
|This is the black-footed ferret whose scientific name is
|.IR "Mustela Nigripes" .
|This animal is now almost extinct.
|.P
|Ms. Walker was completely wrong when she said
|"Indeed, that very member of the weasel
|family that our western grandfathers angrily blasted from Prairie Dog
|burrows", for domestic ferrets are not even distantly descended from
|black-footed ferrets.
|.P
|What makes her statement even sillier is that our ``grandfathers'' were
|unlikely to have been ``blasting'' the very thing that kept the prairie
|dog population under control.
|The black-footed ferret is a specialized predator which only eats
|prairie dogs.
|It was the prairie dogs that caused the
|problems to the farmers and ranchers with their tunnels, holes, and
|eating of crops, not the black-footed ferret.
|In point of fact, the black-footed ferret is in danger precisely because
|of the effectiveness in which their food, prairie dogs, have been greatly
|reduced by farmers.
|There are under 100 black-footed ferrets left in the wild - anyone found
|in possession of one dead or alive is in very serious trouble with the law as
|well as thousands of very angry environmentalists.
|You're not very likely to see one in a pet store!
|.P
|The domestic ferret has been domesticated for at least 3000 years, many
|authorities believing that ferrets have been domesticated longer than cats.
|There is evidence to show that the
|Egyptians were using ferrets to control rodents in graineries before they
|used cats.
|.P
|In point of fact, the domestic ferret is unable to survive in the wild.
|If lost, a pet ferret will die within a few days of dehydration or
|starvation unless found very quickly.
|The long history of domestication has modified the ferrets physiology
|to be no longer viable in the wild.
|Contrast this with dogs or cats which revert to the wild quite easily.
|.P
|The wild ancestors of the domestic ferret (Steppe and European Polecats)
|are not in any particular danger of extinction - being quite common
|in most of their ancestral ranges.
|In fact, except for the Black-Footed Ferret,
|almost all members of the Mustilidae (which include ferrets,
|weasels, otters, skunks, mink, fishers, martens, stoats, badgers and
|wolverines) are quite successful in the wild.
|The fact that one does not see these animals often in the wild is easily
|explained by the fact that they are mostly nocturnal, cautious,
|very intelligent and very, very fast (not including skunks obviously!).
|However, when cornered, even the smallest members of the Mustelid family
|will take on creatures much larger than themselves.
|You haven't seen anything quite like a creature weighing less than an ounce
|(baby Least Weasel)
|shrieking defiance and threatening to take your finger off at the neck.
|.P
|The domestic ferret (as well as the European Polecat) are often used
|in Europe and Britain as hunting animals, as they have for many hundreds
|of years.
|The most common form is for a hunter to release one or two ferrets into
|rabbit burrows, which cause the rabbits to bolt out of their burrows into
|nets that the hunter has set up.
|Hunting with ferrets is illegal in North America.
|.P
|Ferrets have been in North America for over 300 years.
|They were used in the 1800s for rodent control.
|The ``ferretmeister'' would come with his ferrets to a farm or grainery
|and release his ferrets to chase out the rats.
|Even now, ferrets are often kept on small farms and at feed mills for
|rodent control rather than cats because the ferret is less likely to wander,
|and is able to chase rats through their tunnels.
|Ferrets traveling through rat tunnels leave trace odors that trigger fear
|in rats and mice causing them to flee.
|.P
|The British Armed Forces uses trained ferrets to assist them in removing
|bombs from areas inaccessible to humans.
|They have also been used successfully to help wire planes in hard-to-reach
|places.
|.P
|There are a minimum of 3.5 to 5 million pet domestic ferrets in North
|America.
|Obviously, the popularity of the ferret isn't as recent as one would assume fro
m
|Ms. Walker's article.
|.P
|Ms. Walker then goes on to remark about ``supplying their pets with fresh
|prairie dogs''.
|Supplying fresh meat to domestic pets whether cat, dog or ferret runs the
|risk of introducing worms, parasites and disease.
|If you're not prepared to feed your pet properly prepared foods, you shouldn't
|have a pet.
|Besides, I don't imagine that any domestic ferret has ever tasted prairie dog;
|I've already debunked the myth that domestic ferrets are related to the
|black-footed ferret that does eat prairie dog.
|Our ferrets much prefer
|premium dry or wet cat food (as did the baby Least Weasel) - they won't
|touch the cheap stuff - which consists of mostly cereal fillers.
|It's not a large expense - approximately 2-3 pounds of dry food per month.
|.P
|Finally, a cage is essential.
|It is not a good idea to let ferrets loose unsupervised for
|long periods of time, particularly in un-ferret-proofed areas.
|Ferret-proofing is like baby-proofing - except that ferrets can run
|and climb a lot faster than their owners can react.
|Ferrets can get in remarkably small holes, become stuck or
|injured in inaccessible places, or hide under rugs, or in sofas etc,
|where they may be crushed by an unsuspecting human.
|It is far safer for your ferret to be having their naps, and they sleep
|16-20 hours per day, in a nice cosy cage with their litter pan, water, food
|and sleeping blanket.
|In fact, it is perfectly reasonable to leave them in their cage for most
|of the day, letting them out only for a couple of hours of supervised
|playtime.
|.P
|A brief description of ferrets:
|.VL 1.4i 2
|.LI Weight:
|(females) .5-1.5kg (1-3 pounds)
|.LI Weight:
|(males) 1-2.5kg (2-5 pounds)
|.LI Length:
|14-24 inches including tail.
|.LI Build:
|Slender and athletic.
|.LI Colouration:
|One common colour pattern (sable).
|Many other colour patterns are being bred.
|.LI Lifespan:
|When well cared for, a pet ferret can easily live 8 to 12 years.
|.LE
|.P
|Of the many ferrets we've ``met'', all were gentle natured and very playful.
|Our ferrets have been handled by 60-80 children during supervised
|children's Christmas parties, and I have to admit that our ferrets were a
|lot calmer
|and more tolerant of inexperienced handling than we were on their behalf.
|Our ferrets react to all strangers with licks and kisses.
|.DS I
|Regards,
|
|
|Chris & Patricia Lewis
|(and Nicia and Mocha;
|Ferrets in Residence)
|.DE
|.P
|PS: for those old enough to remember M.A.S.H., our ferrets are
|much cuter than ``ferret-faced'' Frank Burns ever could be.
[The response is unlikely to be reproduced in its entirety, but the paper
has promised to send out a reporter "that can write" to talk to us
(according to Ms. Stevenson, we sounded "neat", and the reference
to the Least Weasel really piqued their interest). They also said
that they would publish at least some excerpts from the above.
Other people on the net may find the letter itself, or the information
it provides, useful]
[Posted in FML 0040]
|
