Reception
Ferret legging has existed for centuries, but the sport made a brief resurgence in popularity during the 1970s. According to a 2005 report published in the English Northern Echo newspaper, whether due to a "lack of brave contestants or complaining wives", ferret legging is now "a dying sport" that is being replaced by ferret racing, in which the animals race through a plastic pipe. Although the sport is now uncommon, annual competitions have been held at the Richmond Highland Games & Celtic Festival in Richmond, Virginia since 2003. In 2007, the Manitoba Ferret Association held a ferret legging competition in St. Vital Park, Winnipeg, to raise money in support of the organization's shelter for homeless ferrets.
Marlene Blackburn, who works with the Ferret Rescue League to ensure that no ferrets are harmed in the sport, claims that during the years the competitions have been held in Richmond no contestant has ever been bitten, although some may get a few scratches. According to Kelly Yager of the Manitoba Ferret Association, the animals actually like small, confined spaces. Jay Lugar, spokesman for the Richmond Highland Games & Celtic Festival, said ferrets are "generally very harmless, fun-loving creatures." Reg Mellor, however, commented that at their very worst, they can be "cannibals, things that live only to kill, that'll eat your eyes out to get at your brain".
Christopher Borrelli of The Blade describes ferret legging as a "remarkable" sport in which you get "more agony of defeat than thrill of victory," and Louis Mahoney of the Richmond Times-Dispatch said it is "sure to bring a laugh." Cracked listed it as the fifth "most baffling" sport in the world. The Atlanta Journal's Scott Bernarde commented that anyone who has tried ferret legging "will agree that falling off a mountain isn't all that bad." American sportswriter Rick Reilly of ESPN tried ferret legging as part of his quest to find "the world's dumbest sport" for a book published in 2010.
Mellor made a brief appearance in the 1976 television documentary presented by actor and wrestler Brian Glover entitled It's no joke living in Barnsley, in which he demonstrated ferret legging. During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in May 1996, actor Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) spent much of the interview with Leno talking about ferret legging, which he identified as "a new Australian Olympics event." In November 1992, the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm produced television commercials for the California State Lottery that compared keno with ferret legging. One of the commercials concludes that keno "as you can imagine, is lots better than a ferret in your trousers."
Read more about this topic: Ferret Legging
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