>From: William Killian
>Rudy Bob once asked a question here that some attacked as being snide.  I
>think he was serious.  What do English ferrets die of?  In England ferrets
>are far cheaper than in the US.  Does this relative inexpensive lead to a
>different outlook on care?  I know certainly it would not be universal.
 
Philip has a UK contact who advised us that, in some places in England,
ferrets are "as cheap as chips".  He remarked that at one county fair,
people could buy a *box* of ferrets for 10 pounds and knew of young
hooligans who purchased these poor creatures, stuck them down rabbit holes
then took pot shots at them and the rabbits as they came out.  I'm sure this
is not the normal way but if ferrets are so cheap over there, who, other
than a ferret fanatic, would bother to spend money on taking them to the vet
when they could pick up another dozen for the same price?
 
Certainly in our part of the world, I have been told by a Committee Member
of the South Australia Ferret Association that people can get ferrets for
Aus$2.50 in that state and there are quite a lot of problems with cruelty to
ferrets.  It's the same old story, if you find your *cheap* ferret isn't
acting itself, you can *discard* it and get yourself another one (or ten!)
as that would certainly be cheaper than a visit to the vet to fix the
problem.
 
IMO so many people over here still do not believe *working* ferrets can be
pets.  They treat these poor creatures so badly and don't seem to care if
they recover them or not.  One young guy told me that his ferrets used to
fall asleep down in the rabbit warrens.  "Ahh," I replied, "so you had to
get your shovel out and dig them out of the ground?" "Neah", he said, "we
had rings put in their noses and attached string to them so we could just
drag them out." I struggled to keep a civil expression on my face but that
attitude seems to be the norm with so many people.  Another lady said she
had two female ferrets and she never knew they had to be *mated* when they
came on heat (very few people have their females spayed here in the West) so
when one of her girls died, she thought it had been bitten by a redback
spider.  Turned out the poor animal had been on heat for 8 weeks and
obviously had died of aplastic anaemia.
 
Education is the key and hopefully we will slowly be able to turn their
thinking around!!
 
More dooks from your Aussie cousins and good luck with the Olympics!  The
start was a magnificent show - you should all be very proud!!
 
Nona
The Ferret Centre
[Posted in FML issue 1638]