>From:    Paul Murfett <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Queensland Ferret Policy
 
A few comments about the letter to you from our point of view...
 
>Dear Paul
>Debra Beck has asked me to respond to your em on the above subject.
 
This was a nicely written letter but unfortunately is a little weak on fact
and well hypocrisy.  By the arguments in this letter, dogs and cats should
be illegal in Queensland.  The vast majority of the articles state "prrof"
but it always involves the polecat - not the "true" ferret.
 
>In addition, they may act as a vector of rabies (along with the European
>fox) if the disease is ever established in Australia.
 
We've been round and round on this.  Ferrets have never been shown to be a
vector for rabies.  Never.  One strain in testing showed a presence in
saliva.  ALL mamamls can get rabies.  Not all can pass it along.  Ferrets so
far as all evidence to date appear to be more in the get but not pass it
along category.  Dogs and cats are known to be able to transmit rabies.
Ferrets are not.
 
>On an island off the west coast of Scotland,
 
Looks like a Job for Bob (tm)...
(Lever 1972) and (Roots 1976) if Bob knows these articles great if not thats
pretty minimalist citation.  Was the title given anywhere?  He did a good
job with the other articles that I suspect are related to the ones cited.
 
>Based on the above "history as a pest elsewhere"
 
So I take it dogs, cats and pigs with their longer histories of wildlife
destruction (the dodo for example) are likewise prohibited.  Well being as
man has the longest perhaps they should be as well.  Actually we are ardent
conservationalists but this is not a topic we think is a constradiction as
we have seen no real evidence that ferrets are a problem.  We have dogs and
cats and fully acknowledge they are a serious problem at times.
 
>According to the literature I have, polecats and ferrets are the same
>species.  Both are reported to interbreed to produce viable progeny.
 
This is also true of dogs and wolves so then by this argument dogs should be
banned.
 
>Ferrets appear to be domesticated forms of the original 'polecat'.  Like
>rabbits, some domestic breeds of ferrets probably can't survive in the
>wild, but some might.
 
Actually then she should allow angora ferrets which are easily
distinguishable... As are the albino, the champagne, the fancy patterns
like blaze and panda...
 
In seriousness the way to distinguish those which can and can not survive
are to distinguish which are only a generation or two removed from the wild.
Allow no more polecat hybrids or polecats but allow ferrets.  They are
arguing that since someone might slip a wild animal in with the ferrets and
you couldn't tell them apart by sight... but you can by action.
 
Polecats are wild and as such act like wild animals.  Ferrets are
domesticated and act as such.  If you use this though "mean" ferrets which
do exist would end up appearing to be polecats by demeanor and could be
"banned" along with polecats.  This is not entirely a bad thing.  ad
tempered ferrets should not be bred.  They should be culled.  We prefer a
nice culling and "banishing" to the "mean cage" where they can be more
closely monitored seperate from the others.  But we have none of these
ourselves right now.  They always seem to come around.
 
>As I say, much of this is based on what I have been able to read.  I
>acknowledge that some people will always argue that ferrets can't survivein
>the wild, regardless of any information in the literature and certainly
>regardless of the 'precautionary principle' as it is applied to preventative
>pest management.
 
And there are some who will argue than can survive in the wild despite the
information in the literature.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2010]