>From:    RoSSi <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Working Ferrets
>I myself live in the UK and use my 3 fellows as workers.  ie, send them
>into warrens after rabbits.  Does anyone else use there Ferrets like this?
 
Nowhere in the US is it legal to hunt anything with ferrets.  I think it is
a shame that we have lost this culture and practice here in the US.  The
Michigan Department of Natural Resources in its official hunting regulations
guidebook specifically forbids hunting with ferrets, weasels, mink, and a
lot of other weird slinky creatures that you wonder who in the heck could
use them to hunt.  I can't imagine what harm it would do, but I'm not sure I
could support the legalization of ferret hunting because hunters here are so
ignorant of the customs and practice which British hunters learn.  Some
comments from hunters:
 
"As soon as they kill their first rabbit, they become vicious."
"Let's take them out back and put them down a hole!"  (said drunk with
 beer in hand, shotgun in pickup truck.)
"They kill babies, you know."
"Why don't you just let that thing go." (Not from a hunter, but an idiot.)
 
I am in no way anti-hunting.  There are many hunters in my family.  I just
worry that the reintroduction of ferret hunting in the US would lead to
heinous abuse of ferrets.  Perhaps it could be regulated somewhat like
falconing, with some sort of minimum apprenticeship to insure proper
handling and care of the animal?  (Though I don't think one need spend years
at it like a falconer.  I think an evening class once a week for six or
eight weeks would be fine.)
 
When we took Sebastian to the Upper Peninsula camping, we met a man roughly
in his sixties who was thrilled to see our ferret.  It turned out he had had
a ferret as a child and it was absolutely his best friend.  They not only
hunted rabbits together, the ferret went with him everywhere he went, riding
inside his shirt--even to school!  It's amazing the different comments you
get from people who know ferrets and those who don't know them.  People who
know them usually have nothing but wonderful things to say.
 
Welcome to the list, Rossi.  I would love to hear any anecdotes or
information about your ferrets and their "working" lives.  Tell me, which
one is union rep for your shop?
 
-Catherine
 
(I brought some snow in for the fuzz bozos last night.  Mortimer and Mithril
were thrilled, and dug like crazy.  Sebastian hopped in, then out again like
he had been burned.  "It's coooollld!" He's such a pansy.  Mortimer got so
excited, he beat Mithril up later.  He hardly ever gives her a hard time.
They were fighting over Mortimer's favorite toy.  I guess he knows who has
been messing with it.  Teehee.  :)
[Posted in FML issue 1811]