Happy Holidays FMLer s
Did I miss something or what? I just read the editor s column titled A
ferrety initiation in Ferret USA '99 Annual. I really expected to be
offended by what I was about to read. But the truth is, I wasn t! My
first impression of the article was Funny and a slightly exaggerated
however, not so exaggerated that I felt it was a threat to the reputation
of ferrets. I was expecting to read about this horrendous encounter with
a flesh ripping, aggressive ferret.
If you have never experienced a ferret grabbing the skin between your thumb
and index finger before, than you haven t handled many ferrets. There is
an obvious and painfully difference between aggressive or defensive biting
and playful biting. The editor could have easily mentioned an immediate
need for medical attention (I never got the impression he needed any
though), but didn t. And yes he could have not mentioned it at all. And
forget the other positive things that were said. The bottom line is, he
could have made it a lot worse or he could have sugar coated it.
We currently have ten ferrets and all of them will use their mouth while
playing (some more than others) and one of our recent rescues, for some
reason tries to aggressively bite only me. And when I say aggressive, I
mean one of those clamp down shake her head, hiss and you have to pry her
mouth open to get her off type bites, blood included. I m sure it has
something to do with that sad excuse of parent she had before us. But we
will work this out. She is the exception, not the rule!
I can understand getting upset over fantasized facts and staged
incriminating pictures. But not true experiences. If the only thing you
get from this post is that we have a ferret that is a blood-thirsty attack
ferret and all ferrets are represented by this one, then you missed the
point. You missed it in a big way!
It s funny, we get so offended when somebody even mentions the fact that
ferrets are something less than perfect. And we really get fired up when
they are classified as biters. I noticed that five out of the six ferret
books we have mention something about training ferrets not to nip or
explain why ferrets possibly nip. Let alone the countless post to the FML
about others who have ferrets that nip and looking for ways to break them
of it. We have only two dog books and neither one mentions anything about
biting or nipping. We don t have any cat books so I have no idea what they
address. And yes I heard the facts, ferrets are two hundred times less
likely to bite per capita than a dog. Of course how many dogs are kept in
a cage or in a house the majority of their lives, which happens to be two
times longer than a ferret. I m also curious just how many times and how
many different people a dog has contact within its lifetime compared to a
ferret. I got news for you, the wonderful members of this list represent
a very, very small percentage of the ferret owners out there.
Example: We went to the Grand illumination ceremony an event held in
downtown Dayton that starts off the holiday season. Thousands of people
were there including some pets (mostly dogs). We took two of our ferrets
to the event. Needless to say, we were very popular. We never saw another
ferret there and believe it or not, only a couple people mentioned they had
one. The point is, we try to take at least one ferret with us (weather and
other things permitting) out in the public whenever we can. We are fully
aware of the dangers of doing so and limit the amount of handling. If
someone asks to pet them, we always present them the ferret in a position
that limits or restricts access to their head. This has been mentioned
several times on the FML. How many times do you see dog owners doing this?
You need to stay in contact with reality. All animals are unpredictable
ferret are no exception. I think sugar coating or hiding the facts is just
as much of an injustice to potential ferret owners, as the non-informed
sales associates at the pet stores.
Jerry, Nita and the Ten of Hearts Gang
[Posted in FML issue 2510]
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