BRAVO BOb! I as you have been from the onset very opposed to breeding programs which implement crss breeding of mink / polecat into the domesticated lines. WHY SO? Because the instinctive behaviors are brought back into the lines and the animals are not easily handled for approximately 3 generatins! I DO KNOW this - as I was involved in the AU breed program some many years ago. It did take at least 3 generations of kits before they were not nasty bitey animals..( though it still was a while to get the litter box ingrained as a toilet not a bed) . and these were from working stock (ferrets )nOT polecats.... not minks! The equivalent is the situations across the country with wolf hybrids which are mostly unlawful due to the unpredictability of the animal within the human populace. If you ever have the opportunity visit a sanctuary ( I did) and see the animals that want to be wild-- but lack the abilities and cannot function as domesticated dogs. It is cruel what a human will do to animals.... I did author an entire article on this exact topic and parelelled the tribe placements of the wolf with the colony of the ferret-- unfortunately where submitted it was deemed controversial... and therefore not printed, that was in 1998-1999... and I have not had the time to find it again. My two cents is thank you Bob C... for bringing up a tpic and making extra points on how breeding instinctive nature into domesticity is not a great thing. Alicia D., volunteer www.ferretwise.org [Posted in FML issue 4678]