>From:    Sunny <[log in to unmask]>
>Broomie, please do ferrets a good deed and do NOT get any!  Here's why.
>1. You have a four-year-old child.  That child is too young to play with
>ferrets.
 
Who are you to make that assumption?  Is this based on experience you had
with your OWN four year old child?  It gets rather tiresome to hear the
same ol rhetoric about not allowing children and pets to reside in the
same household.  Broomie did not say that her child would be playing WITH
the ferrets or that the ferrets were FOR the four year old.  Her exact
statement was, " I have a 4 year old and I don't want him to get bit, even
nipping concerns me (depends on what one means by nipping).  I will always
supervise the ferrets."
 
Of course she doesn't want her child to be bitten (who does?) and she
posted a perfectly valid and reasonable concern.  But, don't say, "If
that is your concern, then don't get a ferret".  That's like telling
someone who is afraid of getting into a fender-bender not to get into a
car...ever!  Getting into a fender bender or getting bit (or scratched)
by a pet is a chance you take.  There is NO reason that a four year old
child and a ferret cannot cohabitate peacefully with proper supervision.
 
>2. You think you can find a ferret that does not bite, that is impossible.
 
Baloney!!  I have five ferrets and NONE of them bite... ever.  They "bite"
their food, they chew on eachother but they do NOT bite humans just for
the entertainment of it.
 
>All ferrets bite, it's their natural way of being; it's a form of play
>for them.
 
My ferrets play without biting....  what's wrong with yours?
 
>But you have a four-year-old child and that child WILL play with the
>ferrets (or attempt to play with them) and the ferrets WILL bite him,
 
Again, you state something about which you know nothing.  You cannot say
that the ferrets WILL bite this child.  You do not know the ferrets or
the child or the parent.  Your assumption seem to come from firsthand
knowledge... so I ask myself, "why does this persons ferrets BITE while
engaged in play with humans?"
 
>Ferrets are even more vulnerable to rough handling than, say, a bunny
>rabbit.  They will NOT survive rough handling
 
Ferrets CAN handle "rough handling"... look at the way they play with
eachother.  What do you call "rough handling"?  Kissing too much?  Rubbing
the fur the wrong way?  "Rough handling" that would injure an animal (or
ferret) is squeezing too tight, pinching, poking, pulling tails, twisting
ears, holding by the throat.... but this is a four year old.... and most
four year olds are sensitive enough to know that these things hurt.
 
>four-year-old WILL 'rough handle'... he's FOUR years old!
 
Not true.  NONE of my children, when they were four years old, "rough
handled" any animal.  They were taught from infancy to "touch gentle".
 
>Ferrets have very distinct waking / sleeping patterns and if you attempt
>to force a ferret to adjust its instinctive patterns to YOUR patterns,
>you WILL SERIOUSLY SHORTEN ITS LIFE.
 
Oh brother!  Ferrets are adaptable.  And I highly doubt that a change in
schedule will shorten it's life.
 
>To reiterate, please do not get any ferrets.  Besides no one should have
>only one or two ferrets... that too is not fair to the ferret.  If you
>get one, it becomes unnaturally bonded to you, which is endearing in its
>own way, but very selfish.  If you get two, they bond to each other, then
>when one dies, the other suffers terribly over the loss.  When you have
>ferrets, you should always have at least three, so when one dies the
>others can console each other.
 
You mean keep "replenishing" the business everytime there was a loss so
that you would have THREE ferrets until they day you died because a ferret
can't cope with the loss of a playmate and would never adjust?  That kind
of reasoning is asinine.
 
>People, please be honest about ferrets!
 
Yes, what a grand idea!  You go first!
 
>But at least we could be more responsible and not keep ferrets at ALL
>if we are going to endanger their lives by keeping them around little
>children...
 
So what do you propose for people who have ferrets FIRST and then decide
to start a family??  Should they get rid of the ferret(s) when the baby
arrives??  According to your logic, they couldn't WAIT until the ferrets
all passed away because the stock would always be replenished to keep the
ferrets from being depressed.  .
 
>So Broomie, please do not get any ferrets. end of my comment.
 
Broomie, when you find the right ferret(s), go for it!!!
 
R.
[Posted in FML issue 3754]