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Anonymous
I went to a birthday party at a woman’s home last night who is from England. She and her husband moved to Canada 2 years ago and are actually moving to Ottawa this fall. However, I wanted to meet her polecat hybrid Weasel. Weasel was bought from a breeder in England who has a European polecat female he breeds with ferret hobs. He sells the kits for the most part to people who use them as working ferrets i.e., ferreting. More on that later. Weasel is almost 6 years old but is a very different looking ferret. He is huge, not only his head but his entire body is much longer and bulkier than even the largest gib I’ve ever seen. And strikingly his eyes are smaller in proportion to his body and they are blue.
>> Anonymous
Kim talked a great deal about ferrets in England and blew my romantic notion of hunting ferrets right out of the water! The so-called hunting ferrets are treated horribly, made me ill at some of the things she told me. For one thing they don’t actually hunt rabbits but are used only to chase them out of their warrens. The humans break the necks of the rabbits when they run out. To prevent the ferrets from killing the rabbits, owners sew their mouths shut when they take them out for ferreting. This is done repeatedly. Or they simply smash their canines. Rarely are they allowed to eat the rabbits since the owners don’t want to encourage the ferrets to develop a taste for rabbit. Rabbits are a huge problem in England and ferrets are considered working animals, not pets by the ferreting community.

She said that at the end of the season many are simply killed by their owners having served their purpose - only a breeding pair is left to make kits for the next year’s ferreting. The breeding pairs are treated a little better, in that they have a larger enclosure. The others have little wire cages aka McKay. The bedding used for breeding ferrets is straw. And if you’ve ever seen straw you know the ends are sharp. They wouldn't dream of taking their ferrets to a vet since they are considered disposable. If they get sick, Kim said "its a shovel to the head." The vet she had in England told her that she was the first person who had ever brought a ferret into the clinic for treatment, although there were numerous ferret owners in the area.
>> Anonymous
She had a neighbour visit her once who had owned ferrets for 60 years and was amazed to see her ferrets running free in the home and was incredulous that she had taught them to climb stairs! She told him they do this naturally and he couldn’t believe she kept them as pets.

They are not at all socialized and many are fed milk and bread as their staple diet. I asked her whether the conditions she described were representative of most of the ferreting community or a minority. She said that the people who treated their ferrets better were the definite minority and she was not aware of anyone personally who was in the minority group. She often attended some of public get togethers where ferreters would bring their breeding ferrets or kits to sell. This is how she acquired Weasel. All the people she met who used ferrets as working animals treated them horribly.

The one positive thing she told me is that you never find ferrets in pet stores and that is primarily because the notion of having a ferret as a pet is considered strange. One has to go to a breeder, who is breeding ferrets as working animals or sometimes you can find them at an animal shelter.

People who keep ferrets as animal companions are a teeny minority in England and there is a huge divide between the two communities. The Ferreting group think its ludicrous to keep ferrets as pets and think people who do are bonkers, while the other group are critical of the way hunting ferrets are treated (understandably). The two groups often clash with their differing philosophies.
>> Anonymous
So when we hear that adrenal disease and insulinoma are rare in working ferrets, that is true but not because their ferrets are healthier. It is because ferrets that are ill are killed by their owners, not euthanized by vets and most never get old enough to get those illnesses.

Now this is NOT the picture Bob Church paints of ferrets in England and I wonder whether the people he met up with were only the small minority who keep ferrets as pets??? I do trust Kim’s account because she lived in England all of her life up until 2 years ago and had ferrets there for a decade. She brought 3 with her when she moved here, one has since died. Beside Weasel, she has an elderly female who is blind and adrenal and is somewhere around 7 years old.

I'll tell you this was a rude awakening to know how the majority of ferrets are treated in England and I imagine in the rest of Europe!
>> Anonymous
jeeeez
>> Anonymous
I'm not trolling when I say this...

But all animals have their uses to humans. Sure, these things are deplorable, but I prefer this to treating animals like equals to humans. They're not. They shouldn't be. We're at the top of the food chain for a reason.

I use dogs for hunting (they are treated VERY well, mind you), but I have nothing against killing a sick animal. Euthanization is killing, plain and simple, whether it's done by a vet or the owner. Also, when driving down the road, I won't swerve to avoid animals; that is reckless and endangers yourself and others.

I don't make it a point to run animals over, I'll slow down and stop, but I'm not going to drive off the road.
>> Anonymous
>>293320
op here. i have no issues w/ the uses of animals (although i do hold them in higher regard then some inferior creature) its just the way they are treated when they are used. like you said you treat your hunting dogs well. obviously these ferrets im talking about are not. i also dont have an issue with "euthanization" but the sewing of the mouths, and smashing canine teeth? i just dont get it i suppose
>> Anonymous
nigger british faggots