It is my understanding that it is illegal to use ferrets to hunt game
animals, such as rabbits.  It is not illegal to use them as working animals
to control "vermin".
 
Many Amish farms in Ohio use ferrets instead of cats to control rodent
population in their barns and graneries.  (Holmes county, located between
Cleveland and Columbus, has one of the highest density populations of Amish
in the country.)  I imagine they live lives much like the farm cats, far
different from the pampered lives our house cats and ferrets have.
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2231]