Thanks, Mary for your notification of what shows up now for the on-line
AP stories (no ferret mention).
 
I looked up the stories reported by those who said on the FML that they
had read that incorrect statement.  The statement doesn't appear any
more, but there are AP stories there, so I can only assume that they do
real time replacements with corrected stories when an error is considered
significant.
 
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030524/ap_on_he_me/
sars_virus&cid=541&ncid=716
 
>Toronto Braces for Additional SARS Cases
>
>Sat May 24, 6:58 PM ET
>
>
>By TOM COHEN, Associated Press Writer
>
>TORONTO - Hospital workers in Toronto once again ...
 
is where one person found it and she would not have mentioned it if
it wasn't there, but it looks like AP is rapid with removing bad info.
 
http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/world/wire/
sns-ap-sars-virus,0,6680560.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
 
>World's SARS Death Toll Surpasses 700
>By WILLIAM FOREMAN
>Associated Press Writer
>Originally published May 25, 2003,
 
That one also comes up with search that was done on ' "Baltimore Sun" and
civet ' BUT all mention of civets and of ferrets was not there.  Instead,
a link which went to an AP viverrid write-up was there.  The FML member
who mentioned that is someone I've found to be reliable over the years.
 
BOTH those people said that they saw ferrets specifically mentioned in
the articles so I can only conclude that the AP corrected its error
on-line rapidly once they learned of their error (a good sign), so we'll
have to see if newspapers also carry corrections.  With two separate AP
reporters names attached I wonder if AP had a bad database they were
working from in common.
 
Newspapers may be different story so in case some don't print
corrections here is useful info for your letters to their editors:
 
>Taxonomically Civet Cats are viverrids which branched from cat ancestors
>over 20 million years ago, while ferrets are mustelids that branched
>from dog ancestors over 30 million years ago.  Ferrets are no more close
>relatives to Civet cats than Fido or Yogi the Bear.
[Posted in FML issue 4159]