First off I must say that I did not attend the show or see the twisting
scruffing incident that was posted.... BUT this issue causes concern and
since I have worked with severe biters coming from abusive or neglectful
situations and in one particular case we worked with Angoras and Pastels
from Denmark, I would like to comment.
 
In none of these situations did we use any training technique that caused
fear or pain to any of the ferrets and in my humble opinion there is never
a viable reason to cause pain or fear.
 
Years ago I did breed my ferrets and those of you who have been on the
list for awhile may remember my few posts on this subject.  It seems my
practices may not be what is practiced by many of todays breeders.  My
ferrets were my companions, allowed out of cage time together and plenty
of social time with me each and every day.  Mothers were very warm towards
other adult companions and all were very loving towards the kits, including
the fathers and our dogs.  From day 1 from birth, each and every kit was
gently and lovingly handled and the mothers didn't mind at all.  Well, they
were a bit perturbed that the dogs cleaned their kits because THEN they had
to clean doggie smells off of them.  Socialization and cuddling was
instituted from day 1 and I viewed it as a very important part of breeding.
The reason I bred was because I wanted to share this wonderfully joyful
creature with others.
 
Throughout my professional career, both work and ferret related, I've
learned that reputations are extremely important.  A bad reputation will
not reflect only on the person but also the organization on a whole.  I
encourage anyone who has a concern with any individual, organization or
any of the volunteers practices to voice their concerns so that the issues
can be corrected.  Sometimes it is difficult to tackle certain issues, but
I hope that we are all adult enough to understand that constructive critism
is just that, and not meant as an attack on any individual or organization.
 
A polite complaint to any individual or organization should be lodged
without any fear of retaliation.
 
No individual or organization is perfect and we should strive to make
improvements when needed.  When someone voices their concerns, corrections
can be made, so it is very important that others speak up when they have a
concern.  It doesn't matter how long someone has been doing something, IF
it is not being done humanely or correctly, they need to be politely told
and their organization informed as well.
 
While it is true there may be circumstances where 'what you see' is not
necessarily all of the story, there is no excuse or reason for causing
pain or fear to ferrets when training them.
 
Another concern here is if this type of treatment was a public display,
what type of treatment do the ferrets receive behind closed doors?
 
Why would anyone want to cause pain to any other being.....
 
Perhaps it is a good thing that I had not attended this particular show....
 
Please if anyone feels the need to flame, do it to my personal address so
as not to use up valuable FML space.
 
Hugs to all.  tle (the one who uses gentle loving training methods)
[Posted in FML issue 2758]