Perhaps one of the greatest problems faced by ferret owners and their
charges is the misinformation concerning the state of domestication of our
little fuzzbutts.  Classified by some as "domestic," "domesticated,"
"semi-domesticated," "exotic," and even "wild," it is a simple exercise to
simply apply the definition of your choice for whatever purposes you wish to
advance.  Thus, if a writer wishes to imply ferrets are wild animals, they
can find a reference calling them "semi-domesticated" or "exotic," or simply
use an older reference comparing them to polecats.
 
Domestication is nothing more than a form of evolution where so-called
"natural" selection has been replaced by "human" selection (Interestingly
enough, Darwin was extremely interested in domestication, even wrote a book
on it, and coined the term "selection by natural causes" to separate it from
the human selection of domestication).  That means it is not only a state of
being, but also a biological process.  To really understand what
domestication is, how it works, and why there are so many misunderstandings
concerning it, you first have to understand some evolutionary concepts, some
"bio-political" concepts, and the difference between human classification
and natural reality.
 
There are many definitions of domestication.  Some require an organism to
simply exist while in human control; the opposite extreme is that the
animal must wear the indelible stamp of human control by changes in their
appearence and behavior.  Neither definition is true, yet, neither can be
accuractly classified as false.  The reason is because there is not a
universally accepted definition of domestication which includes a
check-list of criteria that clearly limits classification to specific types
of changes.  There is not even agreement on how to taxonomically classify
domesticated organisms, and some species have the same Linnean binomial as
their wild ancestors, while others are given their own species name.  A
major reason for this lack of agreement is because the study of
domestication draws people from many diverse and essentially unrelated
fields.  Bacteriology, genetics, zoology, botany, archaeology, and even
virology have groups of people studying the process of domestication; all
have their own criteria and few agree.
 
Don't feel bad; the same problem exists in all of biological nomenclature,
where one set of standards are applied to bacteria, another to plants, and
yet aother to animals.  This lack of agreement, mixed with a generous lack
of understanding of evolutionary concepts, has prevented the acceptance of
an universal species concept.  Several scientists have stated that the
acceptance of a definition of domestication hinges on the acceptance of a
definition of a species, and without the later, the former is impossible.
 
As a student of domestication, I disagree (and I think most domestication
scientists would as well), mostly because the one major difference between
the natural species concept and the domesticated species concept is human
involvement.  So, even if you cannot define a species, you can still
measure the degree of human involvement and classify an organism as
domesticated based on that alone. Thus, the only real evolutionary
difference between a naturally-selected organism and a human-selected
organism is the human involvement.
 
To this point I have only used the term "organism" rather than animal,
because domestication can occur to *any* living organism.  There are
domesticated viral, bacterial, fungal, botanical, insect, bird, and mammal
organisms; some greatly impacted, while others having only a small segment
of their genetic codes changed, yet all are domesticated.  But, to better
create an understanding of the issue as it applies to ferrets, from this
point forward I will refer to the process as it applies to animalistic
mammalian ferrets, with the understanding that most, it not all of my
arguments also apply to the other organisms as well.  Also, regardless of
certain religious opinions, evolution has nothing at all to do with
theology; it deals with biology.  Religious arguments belong to another
forum or private from the FML.
 
Let me start off with explaining the difference between "domestic" and
"domesticated."  As most of you have already noticed, I prefer the use of
"domesticated" when referring to ferrets and normally never use the term
"domestic." I do this because "domestic" can mean "domesticated,"
"household," or "local."  Thus, a bobcat is domestic to the United States,
a broom is domestic to the kitchen, and a ferret is a domestic animal.
Because few people understand the difference between the black-footed ferret
and the domesticated ferret, and both are technically "domestic" (the
black-footed ferret is domestic to the Wyoming and the US), it can lead to
confusion on the specific status of our carpet sharks.  That confusion is
non-existant when you use "domesticated" when referring to our little
buddies, so I prefer that term.  Also, "domesticated" makes the implication
that the process is finished and the state of domestication has been
reached, which nullifies "semi-domesticated" arguments.
 
Bob C and 19 MO House Weasels (In memory of Simon)
[Posted in FML issue 2382]