To Beth:
 
I understand your point about misuse of the term "defective." I think,
though, what the breeder-types are saying is not that MF ferrets are
"defective," (even when they use that word).  What they mean is that these
ferrets have an arguably high incidence of cancer, and it doesn't have to be
that way.  It's the breeding protocol, not the ferret, that is defective.
 
No one here would label a ferret defective.  Many of us have geriatric,
blind, deaf, or alternatively able ferrets.  As a species their tenacity and
ability to cope with physical challenge is laudable.  Sometimes they outdo
us bi-peds.
 
What is defective is inbreeding the lines so thoroughly that the animal
mutates.  More defective is breeding a ferret whose ancestors are known to
have cancer or breeding a ferret so young that you don't know whether the
line has cancer.
 
Case in point: a breeder gave me a hob last month, because he thought the
hob might have cancer.  Bubba does not have cancer.  But I aplaud the
breeder, Flemming Farms of Brighton, Michigan, for removing Bubba from the
gene pool as soon as he suspected cancer.  He also sold all the kits on
neuter/spay contracts, thereby ending the line.
 
Breeders breed for color, pattern, and temperament.  Responsible breeding
could in theory weed out the cancerous trait.  To do so would be no more
God-playing than breeding for color.
 
So you're right; cancerous ferrets and more specifically MF ferrets are not
defective.  But some of these cancers could have been prevented by
responsible breeding, and that is a shame.
 
I will not get into whether humans should be aborted who carry a cancer
trait or the Downs gene.  It is not the same thing.  Ferret breeders ALREADY
muck around in the gene pool by breeding for trait.  I'm saying as long as
they're in there, they can do some real good and breed away from cancer.
 
At any rate, cancer in ferrets is probably our fault, so we should fix it.
Long story short, too late, it's not the cancerous ferret that's defective;
it's the huge breeding machine that cares for color but not for cancer.
 
Cher
[Posted in FML issue 2143]