2020.
Well, that was something right? Ha-haa.
Those who have been following us know we’ve had our fair share of personal ferret tragedies. Be it bad luck, bad vets, or a genuine curse we’re ready to move past this. Please? We’ve also had our fair share of personal, personal tragedies. I’d rather not go into that with all and Sunday though. 2021 has some making up to do for us. But we’ve also had some things to be thankful for. Our dog beating the odds, getting our baby Mattei (who is literally everything we asked for), our elderly babies still with us. Time to pick up the pieces.
But I would like to focus this blog on something very scary I have been noticing this year. Despite not breeding this year we have always got our foot in the ferret breeders circle and it seems the long-standing fear of ferreters from decades ago is finally starting to rear its ugly head. It seems we are inevitably set to face the same fires that have led to the silver controversy, the Poker problem, and the psycho sandys (if you can remember that one you’ve been around!).
With so many young ferretrys and so many old hats putting up walls and not helping them there is always going to be teething pains but I’m not talking about just new ferretrys. At least one of the people that has brought this front and centre for me has been going about for at least 8 years breeding. It seems that we are now facing the same issues as the pure-bred dog controversy as people try so hard to produce fancy ferrets to make money.
If anyone’s not sure what this is let me roughly outline it for you; pure bred dogs can, not always, our breed for example is very, well, moderate lol, be described as Frankenstein creations. Bred to extremes they can have back and leg issues that give them serious arthritis, flat faces that stop them breathing right, some breeds can’t even breed! They’re kept going by artificial insemination and c-sections. That rings a bell. Angoras failing to go into labour. I think for the most part we’re past that, but we still have the milk issue which means angora to angora litters are destined to be removed from mum, co-parented or die of starvation. Quite frankly the only reason someone should be breeding full jills is if it’s a necessity for genetic diversity or you’re working on milk quality (its not production that’s the problem, it’s just watery as heck).
But it’s not just angoras. We’re seeing a resurgence of lines known to have issues bred to other potential carrier lines. Lines with temperament issues bred. Ferrets with signs of waardies being bred without testing (I’ll be having a blog come out about that soon). Even ferrets with very obvious physical defects being bred because they look “special”. There’s a breeder quite blazenly sharing that they are breeding a ferret with very obvious pinguecula, as a yearling, but everyone is cooing over how wonderful this ferret is because it has colourful eyes. I’m sorry I don’t want to see 5 years’ time when every other ferret has to have their eyes removed by 3 years old because it’s so scared or protruding that the ferret is in pain. There is plenty of healthy lines with bright eyes you could use.
Please. I am honestly begging. You don’t have to be able to see the future to know where this is going. We have been there, we’ve seen it, we can see it in our cats and dogs, we’ve seen it in ferrets’ controversies in the past, Please! Hold your breeder to a standard. If you have a concern raise it like a red flag and if they don’t have a good reason walk away. Same for breeders. Have some pride and decency. Don’t do things to make money, do them with the pets in mind. If in doubt run some tests. And I did see that several of you said such things in the chat. Wish I could say I was one of you, but you know me. Lurker lol. Amazing how some of the more obviously not thought through plans changed the next day 😉 we do have the power to protect the integrity of our lines, our pets, and our hobby.
This also brings me to another issue. We will not be selling on breeding contracts for a while. Period. That also means if you are looking for permission from a 3rd party on one of my lines, I will not grant it, even if we’re close. I know I upset at least one person this year, but I hope this blog helps them understand its nothing to do with them, it’s fear about where the road is headed just now. When we change course, I will change my mind. Until then we can all always do with healthy standard lines that have been tracked. I’m not joking I know people up and down the country that are saying the same thing. And as I always say the best way to become a good breeder is start with standards and let other breeders see who you are before you start asking for lines that they have a lot of emotions and money invested in.
Good luck for 2021, lets hope this is a bad year not a bad decade. Thank you for reading all the way through my sermon. I know it was pretty preachy, but I hope I made my point and made a few people aware of what is happening.
Happy Holidays to everyone, see you soon (hopefully lol) xx