Ferret legging is an endurance test or stunt in which ferrets are trapped in trousers worn by a participant. Also known as put 'em down and ferret-down-trousers, it is a sport that seems to have been popular among coal miners in Yorkshire, England. Contestants put live ferrets inside their trousers; the winner is the one who is the last to release the animals. The world record is five hours and thirty minutes.
The sport may have originated during the time when only the relatively wealthy in England were allowed to keep animals used for hunting, forcing poachers to hide their illicit ferrets in their trousers. Following a brief resurgence in popularity during the 1970s, ferret legging has been described as a "dying sport", although a national ferret legging event has been held in Richmond, Virginia, every year since 2003.
Read more about Ferret Legging: Description and Rules, Origin, Records, Reception
Famous quotes containing the word ferret:
“People do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like our silkworms, and is suffocated in it: a mouse in a pitch barrel.”
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