Hi everyone, Whilst ferrets are routinely used for hunting and as pets in New Zealand (recently they have been banned but I'm sure there are many owners out their hiding their pets) they are HUGE pests due to being released to control the rabbit population a large and thriving wild ferret population has been formed and is hunting non target native birdlife. Over 5000 were initially released and these ferrets were crossed with wild European polecats, to make matters worse large fur farms released many ferrets as business became less profitable. This is why you'll see many articles on ferrets being culled in NZ and why Ferrets are banned in QLD, Australia and some other places in the world as these countries look at NZ and use that to claim ferrets are a threat to native wildlife. Some information (VERY negative towards ferrets.. some information I believe is incorrect and included to encourage negative emotions towards ferrets) http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/dawnchorus/ferret/index.asp ~ Canni [Posted in FML issue 5322]