I think we may be in agreement about the potential risks of ferret legalization, even if we disagree about the likelihood of the worst case scenario.
But regardless, you need to weigh those risks against the enjoyment and psychological benefit that owners derive from pet ferrets, just like with pets of any other species.
> But regardless, you need to weigh those risks against the enjoyment and psychological benefit that owners derive from pet ferrets, just like with pets of any other species.
This almost sounds like satire. You can't have a ferret. Dad said so. Go play with something else.
Right. It's such a tiring method of argument -- "You can't do anything until you exhaustively quantify the plusses and minuses." Some things are self-evidently bad ideas with potential costs so large and "benefits" so imperceptible that they can be safely ignored out of hand.
Sorry man, you don't get to have ferrets. You also can't own a cheetah or a chimpanzee. Get a hamster, cat, dog, tarantula, python, goat, chicken, alpaca, chinchilla, fish, parakeet or one of the dozens of other options.
> It's such a tiring method of argument -- "You can't do anything until you exhaustively quantify the plusses and minuses."
It takes like ten seconds to go over the benefits of ferrets. Why be lazy? I don't think it's a bad idea to briefly weigh both sides in just about every situation.
> But regardless, you need to weigh those risks against the enjoyment and psychological benefit that owners derive from pet ferrets, just like with pets of any other species.
What's the unique psychological benefit that owners get from a ferret that they wouldn't be able to get from a cat, dog or any of the numerous already legal pets?
Ferrets are, like dogs, heavily play-focused animals. For people who can't own a dog-sized animal, ferrets are an excellent choice for active pet owners. Your rabbit or guinea pig is literally going to sit there, eat, and poop. Ferrets are one of the only small pets you can really actually play with.
I think they're extremely good pets for kids, because they're friendly, active, (relatively) robust and much less likely to cause harm to a kid than a larger animal like a dog.
A few years ago someone in the UK put an electric net over their vegetable patch, probably to stop cats. Long story short a cat was killed by said electric net. He was prosecuted but only got a fine of £60 or something. I suspect he might have felt that was good value to eliminate the cat shit from his veggies.
We used to have a bantam chicken and we'd regularly see the neighbor's cat sprinting through our garden being chased around by a small, bite-size chicken.
The cat would regularly terrorize the larger chickens, but it knew not to fuck with the little guy.
Cats definitely. I've seen outdoor cats kill many birds, and have even come across house cats out on hiking trails. What do dogs do to native wildlife though? I've never seen this argument made before. Wild dog packs are very rare, and usually taken care of since they're dangerous. Ferrel cats aren't all that different from house cats, and can be found everywhere.
But regardless, you need to weigh those risks against the enjoyment and psychological benefit that owners derive from pet ferrets, just like with pets of any other species.
I need do no such thing, especially when the argument is one logical step away from "but ma freedumbs!". Or whataboutism, I haven't decided. But "yeah, we might lose an endangered species or two, but what about my needs?" is what I'm reading here.
But regardless, you need to weigh those risks against the enjoyment and psychological benefit that owners derive from pet ferrets, just like with pets of any other species.