Thank you for posting "the rest of the story".  A lot of people tend to
think that there's only one and will jump onto a bandwagon to stomp out
"the bad guys" without realizing it's only a partial view of the situation.
It's something pervert and morbid, even, in all of us to be eager for the
gory details and to be the one looking down from the position of being "the
good guys".
 
As a shelter operator who sees a lot of ferrets with behavior problems,
I've never found any kind of aggressive discipline to be of any benefit...
most especially with "vicious" biters.  I have several "incurable" biters
who no longer bite.  I really wish that the AFA would not condone any type
of physically aggressive discipline for biters.  It is, at best, a
temporary crutch that leaves emotional scars in the long term, as the
biting inevitably recurs if not with the discipliner (who has established
his/her dominance), then with then next person (the show visitors).
 
This behavioral training does NOT apply to human children, however.  I
firmly believe in paddles and in their consistently applied use!
 
Ferrets seem to process violent or aggressive behavior differently.  In
ferrets, aggression is responded to with aggression.  Ferrets do not seem
to possess the capacity for regret on which aggressive discipline depends
for success.  Submission to dominance is NOT the same thing as learned
discipline.  (Consider every underground rebellion in every dominated
country and compare it with compliance to a just authority... then subtract
the capability to regret.)
 
Debi Christy
Ferrets First Foster Home, Carthage, TX
[Posted in FML issue 3006]