I see that many people think negatively about the ferret muzzles...
Only one person had E mailed me agreeing with my idea.
 
I know that if people see a dog in a park with muzzle on it, the people would
think the dog must be vicious.  WELL, if DOG is wearing a muzzle, it IS
vicious, or have some kind of medical condition that it needs one.
 
People also had mentioned that if ferrets had muzzles, they would be thought
that they are vicious.  well, people already DO think ferrets are vicious to
start with.  Eventhough my ferrets do not bite, and are not wearing a muzzle,
they all ask if they will bite, and tell me stories about how many people are
talking how vicious they are and how i could keep such a thing in a house.  I
correct them by saying those stories that they have heard are :mostly false,
the animal might not have been the ordinary pet ferrets, or that particular
ferret had some kind of reason to fight back.  I also tell them that my
ferrets are well treated and most of the well treated ferrets are gentle and
usually won't nip -- except for few occassions.  After I talk to them, they
always asks me if they could touch them to see if I'm telling them the truth,
and they are so amused by just holding that "vicious" animal in their own
hand.    Occassionally mine would lick them and it scares them a little, but
many of those people have good time petting and hugging my ferrets.
 
I am saying that since people already have negative feeling about ferrets,
the muzzles won't change their feeling at all.  If they are interested, they w
ill come to find out more about ferrets, and if they are not, they won't.
 BUt if they do, I would like them to get a feeling of what ferrets are like,
and by just offering them ferrets' buttoms to pet, I don't think they would
get feelings of them.  My ferrets often climb into people's clothes, coats,
sleeves, and those people often laugh and tell me they had never seen such a
funny animal that would crawl into their clothes!!!  Obviously you all had
read my letter I wrote Pat Ball by now, which s/he had posted on the forum,
in which you can see what I had to say in there.
 
I think it is good to give people unique experience by letting them feel the
entire ferret.  Most of the people no longer have negative feeling about
ferrets after they had the chance to hug them and all.  If I had offered them
to just pet their little tiny behinds, I dont' know if the people would have
gotten the same feeling and got amused as much.  But since those people who
handle ferrets the first time aren't too experienced and may squeeze them too
tight, the ferrets might nip accidentally.  Since the ferrets aren't
protected by law at this moment, I believe that we need a little insurance to
protect the fuzzies, such as that muzzle I was talking about.
 
I am pretty sick to argue about if this muzzle would give public good
impression about ferrets or not.  So I will not discuss about this ever
again.  I will apologize to those people who think that I have offended them
by reading about this muzzle thing, because I had no intention to do so.  I
thought it would be a nice thing, but since many of you disagree, I will just
keep it to myself.  I don't like to argue or disagree with anyone since every
one have their own opinion so let's just forget about this whole issue
okay???
 
I would like to apologize for wasting space to discuss this issue, and I will
promise this is the last posting that I will post for this issue.  And if
there are still other people who would like to make comments, please E mail
me personally since not ALL FML readers might wants to read our opinions
about this muzzle issue.
 
I think the forum should be used for more important things such as medical
issues or amazing discovery someone made in ferret care or something.  I
believe the personal opinions should be sent directly by personal E mail so
we won't waste the FML spaces.  ( correct me if I', wrong  : )   )
 
Well, this is it for now.
 
bye
 
FP
[Posted in FML issue 1158]