I saw a piece on CNN Headline News this morning about the effort to save
the BFF.  It was very informative, giving info about how they'd been
thought extinct and then a colony was captured, and about the success
breeding them.
 
But unfortunately for domestic ferret owners, the piece emphazised the
wildness of the BFF, showing the keeper quickly dropping in food bowls so
he wouldn't get bitten, and showing off his scars from the times he wasn't
fast enough.  And they showed footage of BFFs killing prairie dogs, talking
about how BFFs aren't released until they've proven in the 'half-way house'
that they know how to kill.  One of the program people appeared to say that
three times as many ferrets survived if they went through the half-way
house than if they didn't.  Nowhere did they mention exactly what did
happen during the other release!
 
All in all, not a bad piece on BFFs, but I think it was harmful to ferret
owners none the less: nowhere and at no time was there any mention of
domestic ferrets and their differences from BFFs.  From the view of an
uneducated or inexperienced watcher, ferrets are wild creatures who kill
and eat prairie dogs and bite humans.
 
                                                ...eliz
[Posted in FML issue 1347]