>From:    Sandy Repper <[log in to unmask]>
>I hear on the news that you folks in Britain have a mink problem,at least
>in one town.Looked like the town was minking, under all those mustelids.I
>know,what were they minking about(2 ft.).If somebody tries to give you a
>ferret,make sure you say I'm minking about it,until you know it's really a
>ferret.Well,I mink that's enough for now.
 
Yeah! we've got some real nut cases over here - I don't like mink farms,
I wouldn't wear a fur coat but the way that these clowns (the A.L.F.) are
releasing these vicious non indigenous animals into the wild is
unforgivable.
 
People in the vicinity of these outrages have been told to keep babies and
pets indoors and keep windows and door closed.  One chap fishing in the New
Forest, using canned dog food as bait, was attacked by 4 mink who were
after the can of meat.
 
We have been seeing some pretty horrible sights of dead mink on our TV's,
either been road kills or shot.  Men wearing welding gloves grabbing mink
and chucking them into large plastic bins, where no doubt they were
fighting with each other.  I can see that the mink hounds will be busy over
the next few months.  The only trouble is that the clowns who have released
the mink are too stupid to release just how much damage their actions will
cause to our native fauna.
 
When I was at Shackerstone attending a steam rally with my ferret road show
I was chatting to boaters who were telling me that they had seen mink
taking moorhen chicks whilst the poor mother moorhen was swimming around
powerless to do anything about the decimation of her babies.
 
Some friends of mine, who also run a rescue for ferrets, were recently
approached by, I think it was, the Dept of the Environment, they are
extremely concerned that our native water vole will be exterminated by the
mink and they wanted to know if my friends could supply them with ferret
scats.  Apparently if the scats are placed around the entrance to the water
voles undergound living quarters the mink will stay away, at least that the
theory!
 
The ferret keepers in the New Forest area will be very concerned about the
release of mink - Aleutian Disease is carried by mink and a lot of ferret
keepers in Wessex tend to be rather paranoid about AD.  I still think that
lymphoma causes more deaths in ferrets than AD ever has and therefore I
refuse to go OTT about AD.
 
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare & National Ferret Welfare Society Newsletter Editor
http://www.btinternet.com/~sheila/ferrets.htm (Last Update 13 Sept, 1998)
Waiting at Rainbow Bridge: Jill, Deanna Troi, Cameron, Carnath & Button
[Posted in FML issue 2438]