40 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
New Brunswick and Quebec, laws have been passed making it an 
offence punishable by a heavy fine to approach near a fur ranch.* 
The keeper should move cautiously and quietly about the pens 
when feeding. He should have a post of observation from which he 
can see the pens and yet not be seen. A dark chamber with a hidden 
approach and a small window to look through may serve. From this 
post an experienced breeder can ascertain when mating occurs. At the 
earliest, whelping will take place fifty days after mating, though it may 
be fifty-two days, or, in rare instances, fifty-three or fifty-four days, 
especially with the first litter. Fifty-one days is the usual period of 
gestation. 
If the keeper plans to remove the male, he should have the 
sean te pens built in such a manner that the male may be shut out 
(away from the female, though with only a fence or double 
wired fence intervening) without a suspicion on the part of the foxes 
of design in such a removal. The action of some breeders in entering 
the pen and catching the dog with tongs or catching box is_ universally 
condemned as very dangerous at this period. If the male is kept close 
by, he will watch and warn whenever he fears danger and, moreover, he 
takes an interest in the rearing of the young—frequently carrying his 
food along the fence, apparently with the intention of giving it to the 
female and the young. 
It is not usual for parent foxes to kill the young 
Calming intentionally, but, when they become nervous, they 
earn want to remove the pups to another place. A mother 
will frequently become greatly excited and, dashing into her nest, will 
carry out the pups one by one and bury them in the snow or mud. 
This frequently occurs and is the great fear of ranchers in the spring 
months. It is difficult to tell what to do in such an emergency, except 
to see that the foregoing preventive measures are taken. The measures 
suggested in the following paragraph have been successfully carried 
out in more than one instance. 
A crate of chickens or rabbits should be kept near at hand so that 
if a mother carries her young about, a live chicken or rabbit may be 
put into the pen to attract her attention and turn her from her im- 
pulse of hiding the young elsewhere. One breeder says that he stopped 
one mother with an egg which he threw in front of her from outside 
the fence when she was carrying out her pups. 
Some ranchers, during the whelping season, always keep posted 
regarding the whereabouts of at least one cat with young kittens. If the 
*See Appendix V. 
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