[Moderator's note: This came in a couple of days ago and I missed it at first so I'm posting it now, a couple of days late. BIG] I have an interest in this thread, not because of any PC sensibility, but because I live in Mass and we are fighting for legalization. I think we need to define what we mean by a "wild" ferret. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief that these are not minks, weasels, etc. (for the sake of argument) and accept that it is possible for a ferret to get or be set loose and survive for some time on its own. I wouldn't consider it wild, especially if it visits barns, houses, or other human sources for food and/or shelter. Wild implies, to me, that an animal is capable of feeding, breeding, and sheltering itself for generations, without any human contact. In fact, wild seems to imply a certain fear for humans as a rule (there are many individual exceptions, I know, like bears in Yellowstone). Hunting is partially a learned behavior and the steady availability of prey is an issue. The ability to find shelter in even a temperate climate and avoid being prey to some local hunter are tough hurdles. I don't know how a house raised animal can gain the skills and find the conditions to go truly wild. Look at the difficulty the blackfooted ferret is having sustaining itself with considerable human support. The possibility of wild ferrets ravaging the biome is an issue to some ferret opponents in MA and CA. They fear the self-sustaining colony that will prey on poultry (even cows) or endangered species and become the fauna version of kudsu. Some stray that has found some way to eek out survival would be an extreme exception, it seems to me. To call this "wild" is a mistake, IMHO, and feeds the fearmongers dreams. If by chance one of these people saw that we ferret lovers feel that wild ferrets are real, they would make big use of it. I think that a definition of what constitutes a wild animal is as much the source of controversy as the proper ID of the sighted animal. ()__() Till next time.....Rudy the ferlosopher /o o ) o___, [Posted in FML issue 1186]