‘Freakish little animals’: Ferret owners gather to celebrate their charms

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The ferrets arrived ​in ​cages and strollers, cradled in arms and nuzzled on necks. ​With their humans​, they descended on an Ohio exposition centre on Aug 29 to celebrate the finer qualities of one of the United States’ more divisive pets.

“Ferret people, we are a lot,” said Michele Paulhus, who drove her ferrets from Massachusetts to the show in Columbus, Ohio. “You kind of have to be, because they are freakish little animals.”

“But I don’t think we are as bad as the reptile people,” said her friend Skyla Fay.

Here at the nation’s largest annual ferret show, the owners already know how their pets make you feel. Your uncle or your cousin or his roommate once had a ferret, and it chomped on toes and crawled up pant legs.

What these ferret aficionados want is for you to reconsider this slinky mammal. Yes, ferrets might smell like wet basement, and they might steal your TV remote, your car keys or even your underwear.

The word ferret is derived from the Latin word for “little thief”. But what pet, or human for that matter, does not come with a few peculiarities?

“Raising a ferret is like raising a two-year-old or a teenager,” said breeder Scarlett Gray-Saling, who owns 85 ferrets. “The only difference is it is legal to lock ferrets in a cage.”

Gray-Saling, 74, has been organising the nation’s largest annual ferret show, called the Ferret Buckeye Bash, for 25 years.

In the past, more than 300 ferrets were registered to compete. In 2026, there were 101. Some of the events were designed to lure in the ferret-curious: races through plastic tubes, a parade with custom costumes and a challenge that involved ferrets wriggling to escape brown paper bags.

There was a prize for the fattest specimen, awarded in 2026 to an albino ferret named Ralphie that weighed 2.8kg.

But the main competition was more like the Westminster Kennel Club dog show: a high-stakes championship where trained judges determined which ferret was the best of its kind. They awarded points for skeletal structure, muscle coverage, temperament and cleanliness.

“I like to be sure to look at their bottoms, as it does get dirty back there,” said Oden Curry, a 26-year-old judge with a ginger moustache and earrings made of mink jaw bones.

Curry stuck out in this crowd not for his accessories but for his youth. In the 1980s and 1990s, when ferrets saw a frenzy of interest, owners were mostly people around his age.

Shrinking subculture

Now, the remaining ferret shows in the US are frequented by a tight-knit group of people in their 60s and 70s who are trying to keep a shrinking subculture alive.

Pam VanOverloop, 69, is known for importing European ferrets and mating her most “prolific” male, Sir Nicholas Nubbins. Michael Schell, 75, has a tricked-out room in his house for Jelly Bean, who was named Ferret of the Year in 2025.

Mary Cruse, 75, arrived at the expo centre with a rescue named Hammie, who once won a kissing competition. He smooched her face 90 times.

Though there are no reliable national statistics on ferret ownership in the US, there was broad agreement among people at the show that the world of domesticated weasels is not what it used to be.

A New York-based company called Marshall Farms now dominates sales of ferrets to pet stores across the country, while also making millions of dollars on animal testing.

Ferrets, which have a similar respiratory structure to humans, have been used to develop treatments for influenza, cystic fibrosis, Covid-19 and other diseases.

“We understand that people may have different views about the use of animals in biomedical research, and we respect the seriousness of that discussion,” Marshall Farms said in a statement, adding that interest in ferrets is cyclical and is currently in a “growth phase”.

‘I work, I sleep, I eat, I ferret’

The cost of everything about ferret ownership, especially veterinary care, is rising, making it even harder for young people to get involved.

Eliza Warner, a 20-year-old pre-school teacher, said she was not thinking about that when she wandered into a pet store and came out with a mischievous female ferret named Mouse.

Warner, who lives with her parents, said they were furious. That did not stop her from buying a second ferret the same week. Or four more within the year. She was also undeterred by the US$800 (S$1,015) vet bills.

“Girl, look around,” she said, pointing to her wet wipes, pee pads and crocheted beds. “I work, I sleep, I eat, I ferret.”

Though she is active in ferret communities on Discord and Reddit, she decided that in 2026, she would become a ferret-show girl. “I know that there are so many people out there who were just like me, a year ago: looking for something to love,” she said.

On Aug 29 afternoon, she held her ferrets, Monkey and Merlin, in her arms as three judges stood before a wall of ribbons and counted down from 10th place.

Onlookers noticed that Jelly Bean, the reigning champ of the companion ferret class, had lost some of his fur, making way for a surprising upset. Best in Show went to ferret No. 703.

“That’s Hammie,” Cruse cried. “I can’t believe it.”

Despite being a kissing champion, Hammie had never before come close to winning it all. He had been abandoned in the Indiana woods by his first owner and found by hikers who did not know what to feed him. They discovered he had a liking for ham.

He is Cruse’s 29th rescue ferret, and will be her last. Now that she is nearing her late 70s, she said, it is finally time to move on.

As she posed Hammie for photos beside a ribbon nearly three times his size, Merlin and Monkey were back in Warner’s playpen, where she pinned up their third- and eighth-place companion ferret ribbons. NYTIMES