King of the Ferret-Leggers

I recently read a book called Not So Funny When It Happened, a collection of travel stories by such authors as Anne Lamott and Bill Bryson. It was an amusing little book and one that would make a perfect audiobook for a road trip. I've decided to dedicate this post, however, to a particular essay by Donald Katz that describes the sport of Ferret-Legging:

"Basically the contest involves the tying of a competitor's trousers at the ankles and the subsequent insertion into those trousers of a couple of peculiarly vicious fur-coated, foot-long carnivores called ferrets. The brave contestant's belt is then pulled tight, and he proceeds to stand there in front of the judges as long as he can, while animals with claws like hypodermic needles and teeth like number sixteen carpet tacks try their damndest to get out."

Katz interviews Reg Mellor, the "King of the Ferret-Leggers," a title bestowed after winning the record for "keeping 'em down" as they say, for 5 hours and 26 minutes (the previous record being just over a minute).

I'm not sure if this was a legitimate sport in Yorkshire (though wikipedia seems to thinks so) or just built on a dare, but you can read an abridged version of Katz's article here.