185
Concerns over therapy ferrets used to kill rats at UK’s largest children’s prison
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
185 points (98.4% liked)
Not The Onion
21782 readers
1392 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Please also avoid duplicates.
Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I’m not against the idea of therapy ferrets as, they are extremely snuggly and friendly animals.
The problem is that they’re very high maintenance and not incredibly sanitary pets. The problem is that the types of people who are in need of therapy. Animals are not always in the position to be able to responsibly care for a ferret, especially in the long-term.
In this type of situation, a cat is usually a better option. They’re more independent, far more sanitary, and tend to live almost twice as long.
AKA pets.
Assuming you’re not just trying to be cheeky, I think it’s safe to assume they meant relative to the average pet.
What average pet is low maintenance and doesn't make a mess?
I didn’t say the average pet was either of those things. What I basically said was that they probably meant when compared to the average pet, ferrets are much more maintenance and less sanitary than usual.
I found having a ferret was slightly easier than having a cat in terms of maintenance. I don’t understand why they would be any less sanitary, they can be litterbox trained.
Snakes are low-maintenance and hardly ever shit. OK, they're not cuddly, but you can't have everything.
How about not having pets at all? Besides being unethical, they're expensive and a burden.
Cats more sanitary than ferrets? That's a likely uneducated take. I have 3 ferrets and they smell less and are cleaner than cats for sure. Most people don't properly care for them and treat them like rodents, their not! My ferrets are litter box trained as well as any cat and clean themselves often, and when fed proper diet they don't stink (#1 ferret food in USA is Marshalls, first ingredient is corn meal which ferrets as obligate carnivores cannot digest). My ferrets smell vaguely of corn chips but the ones at the pet store stink like ass due to poor diet and improper husbandry!! But u are right about one thing- they are a lot more care intensive than cats! But boy do cats stink worse than ferrets! Ferrets also won't give u toxoplasmosis, as likely 30+% of cat owners have contracted. So if anything cats are the more unsanitary dirty option.
I’ve had both cats and ferrets and find them comparable generally with ferrets needing slightly less maintenance. I agree that with proper care they don’t smell. What aspect of caring for a ferret is much more intensive than caring for a cat?
Ferrets sleep a lot during the day, but for a solid 4-6 hours are very active. Ferrets should be allowed to roam around SUPERVISED for ideally 4 hours a day, too many people treat them like cage animals and do not provide this enrichment. Their not cage animals, but they are too mischievous to allow full roam of the house unsupervised as they will tear into something or get somewhere they aren't supposed to! I personally supervise my ferrets for almost a hour every morning and a couple hours every afternoon. A lot of times I can get away with making dinner and stuff while their out in the evenings, but one of them likes to chew on shit he's not supposed to and one likes to climb as high as he can on the couch but is a clutz and prone to falling lol. One of them is a good boy and doesn't really get into shit and kinda follows me around like my shadow, so he isn't too difficult. Depends on their personality I suppose! Usually my SO and I are watching them together so one of us can keep them from getting in trouble and the other can get shit done. I have had cats and they don't seem to get into the sort of shit my ferrets will lol. Never had issues with my cats getting into my snack cabinets and treating them like a dig pit LOL. I also have harnesses for them and take them on walks around the yard so they can sniff new things. Ferrets are awesome, but a lot of people don't give them proper care. It's hard to blame them because there's not too many good resources on caring for ferrets anyhow, takes tons of personal research. They really should be given lots of enrichment, and the less ferrets u have the more u personally need to entertain them. For example having one ferret is basically abuse unless you hang out with the poor guy constantly, where having 2-3 still requires attention but they can entertain each other to some extent. After getting my last from Petco it took 2 weeks after switching diet before he didn't stink anymore. It's a shame what they go through in most petstores/ homes :( it's almost like having a permanent kitten
Interesting how your experience is both similar and somewhat different. I only had one ferret but she basically hung out with me whenever I was home which was a fair bit as I’m a homebody. She would sleep in the bed with me at night and shadow around/help in whatever I was doing. I had my apartment well secured so I just gave her run of the place and she never got in too much trouble. Granted this was after she was an adult, as a kit nothing was safe and she had to be in her cage unless I was there. It was a dual level with lots of space and toys. I agree that ferrets get into more stuff in general and thieve too. With my current cat it’s more that she constantly wants to be within 1 foot of me and ideally sitting on me at all times. It’s relentless lol. Since she’s awake a fair bit more than my ferret was it feels like more work overall but I’d consider it pretty comparable in general. Please give your ferrets a pet for me :) I miss mine, I had her seven good years.
7 years is a decent life span for these guys! It's a shame the breeding practices for them in the USA are so piss poor. I was unaware of a lot of this going into ferret ownership, probably would not have supported marshals or Petco given what I know now but their such cute little bastards. My younger boy Lucifer is about a year now and still a riot, pabu and momo the older 2 we got as a pair are probably going on 5 and 6 years. One is just starting to show early signs of adrenal disease I think, may need an implant soon but have been very healthy! I'll give them a pat and a freeze dried minnow from u <3 pic of Momo my shadow
That little face! Thank you for spoiling them for me :) Yes breeding practices are horrible with Marshall farms. They’ve made it a monopoly so it’s almost impossible to get a ferret from another organization in the US.
Ah yes. The well known sanitary house cat. None of us have ever had our beloved pet pee in a toaster or our shoes or our beds and they certainly weren't doing so out of spite. We all know cats are level headed rational beings. Well tempered. Tolerant of affection. Perfect for therapy purposes.
I've grown up with cats, and had a full blown litter + mama totalling 7 at one point. Currently have three.
None of them across 40 years ever pissed in vengance. Had a couple of slow shutters dropping turds, had some battle buttsprays, dealt with UTIs, CKD and diabetes and never had a single one piss anywhere but the litter box.
I do not think the cat was the problem in your experience
I'm not the guy above but decent care is vital for cats. I have been on ekough house cats to immediately recognise when they have cats from the whiff at the door.
The number of people who don't keep the fcknig litter boxes clean is INSANE . I've literally had a mate tell me "you are the only people i know that have cats I can't smell"
It's called hygiene.