Stonewall states that “misgendering” isn’t a crime

We have weasels and stoats in our garden. The weasels are very discreet and seem mainly to feed on shrews. They appear to move their young every 3 or 4 days. The stoats don't seem to give a fuck and there are obvious tracks between where they live and where the rabbits are.

Our town has to get men with terriers in every spring for the mink otherwise practically NONE of the ground nesting birds successfully raise any chicks. (This is not illegal - not the UK). Minks are an ecological disaster.

To be fair, many of them escaped from fur farms all by themselves back in the day. They didn't need to be released by activists. It's the fur farmers who are really to blame.

Tbf to the animal rights activists, though they stupidly did release mink the mink also escaped by themselves or through poor care and were probably deliberately let go by the breeders if the farm turned out to be uneconomical.

There's a species of marten (another member of the weasel family) in Europe called the stone marten which developed a love for the innards of car engines, particularly Mercedes. I believe the insurance companies developed specific clauses in their contracts in the event of stone marten damage.

Yep. They killed off masses of birds without thinking once.

Now who do those activists remind me of 🤔

That's what I was thinking of, there were a few years there when it seemed to be the animal rights activists protest of choice.

Maybe it was stoats and I've got mixed up.

That weasel was delightful, though.

I've heard of the dance thing, though I thought it was stoats. Don't know if it's an old wife's tale or a real thing.

Apparently that was believed of the stoat (also known as ermine in its winter coat, much prized historically for its fur, of course). In fact, many weasel species do a sort of victory dance after catching or killing their prey, rather than before.

So I read.

Thank you!

Watching it reminded me - I have an idea that I read somewhere, sometime that up until about Tudor times it was believed that weasels dance to sort of hypnotise their prey.

If anyone knows anything about this could they elaborate, please? Or have I fantasised the whole "Hypnotic Dance of Death" thing?

Edited for random capital letter in the middle of a sentence.

There are already people trying to do DEI within the actual law, like Ann Sinnott - I hope she gets as rich as Stonewall when organisations realise they need actual DEI training

https://aealliance.co.uk/

'Musteloid' is an adjective and a noun, so you're correct, @MarieDeGournay.

Re derails - all the Nature Notes are making me go awwww, thank you for your lovely descriptions of the various little bundles of musteloid fur [I'm assuming that's the adjective; somebody on MN will know for sure] you have encountered.
I'm saying nothing about the Tks, I know not to push it...😁

This is my Cat's favourite video. If anyone reading has a cat who hasn't seen this, make the video full screen and show it to him/her. Hopefully they will love it too 😸

Ozzy the pet Weasel.

Well if no part of your professional role involved having dealings with them, then I don’t see how that non-disclosure rule would apply to you.

😍😍😍

For heaven's sake!

Listen to reason!

There's more for us!!!

Yes - they are much brighter in real life than you would think.

Foxes are as well.

Dogs unearthed a mole yesterday and I put it on the side of the track , in the grass. Sadly it was still there this morning, dead as a Scottish Hate Act - probably shock.

My only consolation was that it was a male, and therefore no chance of it having left a nest full of babies. That had been worrying me sick. (At the time I just hoped to get the poor thing to safety and didn't check its bits - if fact I hope I didn't misgender it, as I never bothered with its chromosomes - it was just assigned male at death based on its physiology.)

Edit for spelling. Twice. And once more for grammar.

We can all get together and hiss in unison.

It'll be great.

<woners if you can book a cell with a view of the Cairngorms>

Yes! I did that once. I made a giant Jaffa cake.

just lick all the chocolate off and ignore the other bits.
Is that heresy? Will I now be blocked from ever posting on MN again?

Yes and yes <gavel>

There used to be a site called Pimp My Snack where students ignoring imminent deadlines would , in the comfort of their student kitchens, make very large versions of their favourite treats. I remember the Tunnocks one because they spent a lot of time getting the silver foil right as was right and proper.

While I am here I once saw a weasel running alongside a road in Suffolk. It was like a tiny horizontal rocket of orange fur. I also once met saw a hedgehog wandering down the middle of the road in an Islington back street.

I'm sure he had fun while it lasted though.

Christ, That's Willyboys entire identity and what passes for a career down the pan!

We should all get ourselves to Scotland and mess up their shoddy law whilst going mustelid spotting!!
I haven’t been for faaar to long, so I’m ready 😄
Also I need a vacation, a free vacation in a comfy prison cell with you vipers sounds about right