>Date:    Sun, 27 Jul 1997 19:19:46 -0400
>From:    Amy Nahirny <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Jack Hanna
 
Regarding Jack Hanna's comments about ferrets being wild animals who make
bad pets -- it has been a longstanding belief in our household that JACK
HANNA IS AN IDIOT.  This man is, IMHO, a very poor excuse for a zookeeper
and so-called "animal expert."  I have for years watched him take animals on
various talk shows and bumble around not knowing how to handle them.  He
often brings them out one at a time until he's got a potentially dangerous
situation brewing with five or six animals of different species on the same
stage at the same time (even predator/prey!!), birds flying free in the
studio, etc.  This little incident regarding ferrets just cements this image
of him in my mind.  There is *NO* excuse for a zookeeper, *any* zookeeper,
not knowing the difference between a domestic ferret, a black-footed ferret,
and a polecat (which is what I assume he was referring to -- or am I still
being too charitable in assuming he'd know a polecat if he saw one?).  (My
SO is a zookeeper, BTW.)
 
This is appalling.  Hanna is about the most popularly well-recognized "animal
expert" out there in popular media.  Consequently, he is capable of doing a
lot of damage with his ignorance and stupidity.  My advice would be -- don't
bother writing Hanna.  He's been a fool for longer than I've been alive.
Write Larry King and/or CNN instead -- request that King do a show on the
legalization issue!
 
-Tasha
 
"It has been said that man is a rational animal.  All my life I have been
searching for evidence which could support this."
                                        -- Bertrand Russell
[Posted in FML issue 2017]