Hi all, it's been a while.  We're still alive, but barely ;-)
 
We just saw something really, really stupid, and want to warn everyone here.
 
The Carp Agricultural fair is one of the largest and best fall fairs in the
province, and is being held this weekend.  Part of the fair is the usual
4H/farm animals/mutt shows etc.
 
Outside of the main pet display area, someone setup what appears to have
been an impromptu ferret display, with about 6 cages, and perhaps 8 ferrets.
They had two of the ferrets out, and were handing them around for people to
handle.
 
The ferrets were young (4-6 mos), a bit nervous, and extremely nippy.  Drew
blood off small children several times.  And no, the children didn't do
anything to deserve getting bitten.  I got bitten by both ferrets.
 
I've never seen ferrets that bad.  Nor people stupid enough to hand biting
ferrets around without warning people.
 
The idiots running the display simply didn't seem to understand the risk
they were running with their animals, and the likelyhood that the animals
could be seized and perhaps even destroyed.  Nor did they understand the
damage they were doing to ferret ownership.
 
Yes, they were doing the nose-flicking to stop them, but they didn't seem
too concerned about children with blood streaming off their fingers.  And
parents who weren't happy at all.
 
If you do take your ferrets to things like this or christmas parties, etc.,
_please_ take only ferrets you trust not to bite.  And if they do nip, put
them away out of reach so they can settle down.
 
Pat and I have taken ferrets to large children's parties, and had _lots_ of
children handling them.  Never any trouble - just licks and kisses.  This,
on the other hand, was a disaster.
 
I hesitate to name these people, because the people with the ferrets might
not correspond to the business card that I picked up from the table.  In
fact, I think the people on the business card are on this list.  If that was
you, that was phenomenally stupid.  If it wasn't you, just people "visiting"
your booth, you should police your events more carefully in future.
 
--
Chris Lewis: _Una confibula non sat est_
 
[Moderator's note: Chris started the FML in 1987 and was its moderator
until a couple of years ago.  Nice to see him post here, though I wish
the news was better.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1707]