Fur and Feathers show tests animal knowledge
Aleasha Sandley
Friday, August 6, 2010
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MARTINSVILLEQuestion: Do chickens ever get a tooth?
Answer: Yes, they get one the day they hatch.
All six teams entered in Thursday’s Fur and Feathers Showmanship competition got the answer to that question correct and tested their knowledge on other trivia presented about the animals they showed at the Morgan County 4-H Fair this week.
The teams — made up of showmanship champions representing small animals, rabbits, poultry, llamas, dogs and cats — also were tested with questions such as what part of a rodent continues to grow throughout its life (teeth), how many kinds of llamas are in the United States (four), how long a dog’s leash should be (six feet) and what it means when a cat leaves a dead bird or mouse on the doorstep (a sign of affection).
Hannah Sichting, 17, and Mercedes DeMoss, 11, won the showmanship competition representing the dog team. Second place went to the poultry team of Erica Honaker and Lydia Farr.
“I watched it last year and I thought it looked really, really cool,” DeMoss said of the competition. She won second place in the intermediate group (4-H members who have just finished sixth through eighth grades) for showing her dog.
It was Sichting’s third year participating in the Fur and Feathers show. She was named champion in the senior division (high school students) for showing her dog.
“For dogs, it’s more how you show your dog (rather than knowledge of trivia about the dog),” she said. “You have to know how to show your dog.”
Morgan County Purdue University Extension educator Rena Sheldon said the Fur and Feathers show had been around for four years after fair organizers decided those showing smaller animals needed their chance to have an ultimate showmanship competition. For larger animals, 4-H members compete in the Round Robin Showmanship Competition.
“It seemed like an opportune time to put the knowledge they have into a fun competition,” Sheldon said.
About half of 4-H members show some type of animal at the Morgan County Fair, she said.
“I think that’s an important part that they have that animal husbandry knowledge,” she said. “That they’re responsible for an animal is enormous, and kids certainly learn a lot from it.”
Participants in the Fur and Feathers show included Julianne Maude and Abby Bramer (cat), DeMoss and Sichting (dog), Olivia Jones and Alyxa Shields (llama), Farr and Honaker (poultry), Corbin Staley and Nichole Marshall (rabbit) and Lexi Baker and John Richardson (small animal).
The show was sponsored by Funny Farm Pet Care with facilities in Morgan and Johnson counties.