Just recently I had a chap in Scotland trying to post on the NFWS Web
Site guest book regarding a hybrid hob that he is offering at stud.  He
stated that the ferret x polecat is a handsome and very friendly animal.
I just don't see why these breeders have to re-introduce wild polecat
back into the domestic ferret, thousands of years of breeding have given
us a friendly, amusing little animal and these breeders are taking a
retrograde step by re-introducing wild blood!
 
Result is that we end up with a hybrid that is totally confused - it has
the characteristics of both animals; does it run and hide when danger
threatens or dash to investigate, is it gregarious or solitary, does it
scream when a human approaches it or accept the attention.
 
I once expressed my unease to someone who used to write regular articles
for a weekly paper covering country sports.  He didn't agree with my
views and thought I was being over cautious... several month later, after
he'd bred a litter of hybrids - someone had found an injured polecat hob
and when it had recovered they had mated it with several jills before
sending it to a wildlife sanctuary - his whole attitude had changed he'd
ended up with a litter of kits that were near enough unhandleable and
totally useless for hunting.  I am not sure how many of the kits he kept
for himself but he did write observations about the different traits
between the hybrid kit and the ferret kits it was living with.
 
I know someone who has a family of hybrids - she and her husband kept the
entire litter and had them all neutered.  These hybrids will not accept
anyone else handling them and even then they just about tolerate it.
Their reactions and the things they do are a mixture of ferret and
polecat.  BTW they took in the mother, an albino, as a stray and she
presented them with a litter of 10 all polecat coloured and that's when
the danger signals started flashing.  The litter was DNA tested by a well
known authority on Polecats to confirm that they were hybrids.
 
--
Bolton Ferret Welfare Web Site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ferreter/bolton.htm   last update 5 Dec 2002
NFWS web site http://www.nfws.net
 
Waiting at Rainbow Bridge:- Jill, Deanna Troi, Cameron, Carnath, Button,
Bill, Bobby, Jasper, Inga, Holly, Fergle, Amanda, Sparky, Daniel,
Blackie, Marvin, Claude, Bumper, Kurt, Tasha Yar, Larry, Lily, Ben,
Fritz, Dax, Kelley, McCoy, Brock, Snowy, Dumpling, Buddy, Stumpy,
Treacle, Max, Scrap, Vanessa, Sarek, Paw Paw, Badger, T.D, Spooky,
Stanley & Tara
[Posted in FML issue 4024]