Domestification III

Ferrets receive my deepest admiration, existing as they do at a line where animal domestication meets animal torture. US pet ferrets are a case in point.

American ferrets have an increased incidence of a complex of middle-life disorders, (specifically insulinomas, adrenal and metabolic diseases). The practices of Marshall Farms, the major breeder and supplier of ferrets to franchised US pet supermarkets, highlight encroaching issues in animal ethics (admittedly not my strong point).

MF ferrets are conceived and born under 'forced' photoperiodicity-controlled, battery-like conditions. Kits are either castrated and stripped of anal glands or spayed at 6 weeks, tattooed with the blue MF earmark and shipped off to PetUniverses all over the continent. Ferret experts acknowledge that cancer rates are elevated in US compared to European ferrets, but studies show no difference in cancer-proneness in US MF ferrets and non-MF ferrets. Instead, speculation is centred on generalised environmental influences such as diet, photoperiod and early neutering, each of which could contribute to the peculiarily endocrinological pattern of US ferret morbidity.



What fact is clear, and neglected, is that your average pet ferret in the US has a lowered life expectancy and greater chance of chronic ill-health. Whether this is primarily or synergistically related to genetic predispositions or inappropriate management, something is going pear-shaped in ferret-world. My money would ride on over-implementation of market-forces and proximal thinking, when sale aspects of cute, colourful, submissive ferret lines are bred without long-term assessments of their wider fitness. Early castration (@6 wks instead of 6m) gets my side-bet as a cause of ferret ill-health. It's carried out not just to improve customer satisfaction (by removing troublesome smells and aggressive behaviour) but also to monopolise and restrict reproduction so that the copyrighted-protected MF ferret product remains exclusive. However, in limitation/segregation of reproduction, amongst the most ethically troublesome aspects of ferret-keeping, MF practices represent an extreme but not discontinuous trend of centuries-old ferret domestification practices. This image from MF sums up their marketing values.



Although widespread for domesticates, it's the control of reproduction which bothers most- a conditional right compatible with quality-of-life, and extended to a wider section of food-intended domesticates (esp. females eg cows, sows, mares, hens) and commensuralists/pets (dogs. cats) than to the modern ferret product. What offends most in reproductive control is a repudiation of commensuralism, and that short-term and immediate commercial concerns blinds to the essential human-ferret commensuralism, which can and is being abused. These themes run through animal domestication ethics, all of which rely, without basis, upon human goodwill to promote the well-being of domesticates. Humans aren't too good at that, especially where capitalism's concerned.