Pet Hamsters

Aharoni and Adler both took pride in the successful breeding of the hamsters. Adler provided breeding stock to laboratories. By the time World War II started, Syrian hamsters had already reached the United States and were being used in laboratories.

Albert Marsh of Mobile, Alabama was not your typical highway engineer. He was also a businessman and saw an opportunity in hamsters. He won a Syrian hamster in a bet.

He became interested in this little animal and acquired more.

Marsh named his business the Gulf Hamstery and Marsh Enterprises. He began selling animals to individuals and laboratories. He even wrote and published a book on raising and breeding hamsters. By 1951 the book sold so well it was in its sixth edition. Marsh also did a little political work and convinced the state of California to recognize hamsters as domestic animals, thus opening up another market for his business.

Marsh's pet market eventually dried up. The next person to make a mark in the history of Syrian hamsters was a man named Michael R. Murphy. Murphy was a graduate student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went to Aleppo, Syria in 1971 to bring back the first wild Syrian hamsters since 1930. At that time, all the domestic hamsters had originated from the mating pair that Aharoni brought back. Murphy and his wife Janet brought back a dozen hamsters. He remarked that after only three days of handling, the hamsters were friendly and gentle.