Bill: I know this is extremely long, but after reading the article that
was posted yesterday to read about the ferrets, I felt a response to the
newspaper was in order.  And I ask anyone here on the FML, if you decide
to contact Ms. Almas, please, sit and think your response out-do not go
into this without concious thought of being calm.  Hysteria is not needed
at this moment.  This is time for people to educate this woman, and
hopefully those involved.  After I had written this, I read it to my
husband, in order to have his input, to make sure I didn't sound too far
off the wall.
 
[Moderator's note: This contains much of the text of a newspaper article
referred to in yesterday's FML.  I don't normally include articles here
due to copyright issues but I think the comments would be meaningless
out of context.  BIG]
 
Dear Ms. Almas:
 
Your article of 7/9/04 has been sent to a ferret mailing list that I
belong to, and I'd like, I hope, to clarify several things that are
stated here.  I have copied your article, and will interject into it
my comments.  You will find my comments above the statement that I am
replying to.
 
Please understand, I am not a veterinarian.  However, I have been in the
ferret community for 7 years, have done 2 radio shows on ferrets for the
Purdue University Veterinary School, am listed in the acknowledgements in
the book "Ferrets for Dummies", have attended to international symposiums
on ferrets, am a member of the Midwest Ferret Fellowship, and am a
rescue, which means I take in ferrets and work closely with ferret
shelters.  Statements that have been made in your article cause red
flags, and perpetuate the misunderstanding of ferrets, which are a loving
pet.
 
Should you wish to contact me, please feel free.  You can reach me at
this email address or [log in to unmask] My home phone number is
260-422-8411, and if no one is home there is an answering machine.  I
hope that you might also forward this email to the authorities on this
case, as I would hate to see something happen to the ferrets, whom I feel
are being unjustly accused in this case.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
 
Rebecca McFarlane
 
 
Published: Jul 9, 2004
Modified: Jul 9, 2004 5:53 AM
 
Ferrets injure baby
Cary parents facing charges
 
By EMILY ALMAS, Staff Writer
 
A 6-month-old Cary girl wound up in the hospital this week after three
ferrets bit her multiple times at her home.  Her parents have been
charged with misdemeanor child abuse.
 
John William Taylor, 33, and Donna Carroll Taylor-Colville, 38, of 718
Westover Hills Drive in Cary, were charged after a social worker at Rex
Hospital notified police of the baby's injuries.  The baby, whose name
was not released, was admitted Tuesday and went home Wednesday.
 
Police say they are still investigating the case; more charges could be
filed.
 
"Parents have an obligation to protect their children," said Capt. Kenny
Williams with the Cary Police Department.
 
 
Almost everyone involved in ferrets realizes that small children and
ferrets are generally not a good combination.  The ferrets might think
the child is a toy.  Human skin is not thick, like an animal's skin, and
therefore much more easily torn.  Think of when a cat or a dog bites or
scratches a human, what happens?  A tear or break in the skin appears.
There wa s always an old wives that 'cats could suck a baby's breath out
of it' and therefore cats were rarely allowed near babies.  This is just
not true.
 
 
Williams said Taylor and Taylor-Colville had allowed the ferrets access
to the baby in their apartment.  He would not provide further details
about the case.
 
Fred Battaglia, a Durham attorney representing the couple, said Thursday
that they had no comment.  He said, however, that the parents love their
daughter very much and were going through a difficult time with the
situation.
 
 
A ferret's metabolic rate is extremely high, and if one should have
rabies, it would be dead before the 10 day quarantine.  If the ferrets
have not been taken outside and exposed to any wild animal, then I
seriously doubt that there are rabies involved.
 
The parents are scheduled to appear in Wake District Court on July 27.
The three ferrets were taken into custody by the Wake County Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  Under state law, they must be
monitored for 10 days for evidence of rabies.
 
 
Anyone involved in ferrets knows that they require an extreme amount of
attention.  They are not animals like cats or dogs, where you pet them on
the head and pass by.  They require and need socialization.  And almost
everyone knows that young children should always be supervised with any
animal.  My oldest great nephew has been exposed to ferrets for years,
and I never allowed him to be by himself with them until I knew,
absolutely and positively, that he knew exactly how to act with them, how
to play with them.  Now I would trust him implicitly, and it has been 5
years-he started with ferrets at the age of 6 years old.  However, he has
a younger brother, who is just two years old, that I do not allow around
the ferrets.  First of all, the youngest has no concept of how to treat
an animal this small, and the ferrets would think him a great toy to play
with.  Yes, a ferret can injure a child, but again, so can any other
animal.
 
Kendell Hanley, a ferret owner, has sold the animals for five years at
Pet Mania in Raleigh.  Hanley said they make good pets but require a lot
of attention.  She said she has heard of several incidents of
unsupervised ferrets injuring children.
 
 
I agree whole heartedly with Ms. Hanely's statement on this.
 
"It's not at all the animals' fault. It's the owners' fault," she said.
 
 
Yes, they are related to weasels, they are of the mustelid family.
However-ferrets have been domesticated for over 2,000 years, and
therefore are not wild animals.  This can never be stressed enough.
 
Domestic ferrets are small mammals that have become increasingly popular
as pets.  They are related to the weasel and usually weigh less than 3
1/2 pounds.
 
 
This is an enormous problem that is seen with ferrets.  Pet stores are in
it for the money, and most pet store employees know little about ferrets,
therefore they cannot give correct information.  People go to a pet
store, find a ferret, and either hate them or fall in love with them.
If they fall in love with them, they take them home, and if they have
not researched the pet they've just purchased, then it can either be an
experi ment in terror for the ferret and the owner, or it can be a lesson
of learning, and hopefully of joy for both human and ferret.  Many times,
however, once the new owner discovers the amount of time and money a
ferret requires, they no longer want them.  Then the ferret is turned
over to an animal control, hopefully to be handed over to a shelter, or
turned into a shelter immediately.  What a lot of people don't understand
is that if they raise a ferret from a kit, the animal has bonded, and can
grieve itself to death.  I, along with many other shelter operators and
rescuers, have had this happen.
 
The Wake County Animal Care Control and Adoption Center regularly accepts
ferrets that owners give up, said Nancy Clemmons, shelter manager.  Some
owners don't realize the amount of care that ferrets require or are
surprised at how active they can be, she said.  In recent weeks, the
center has placed five ferrets with new homes.
 
 
Ferrets are extremely inquisitive, hence the statement "ferreting out"
something.  As for chewing habits, I find ferrets to have less of a
chewing habit than a dog or cat.  I rarely have a ferret that chews.
They prefer to dig, and therefore many people have "digging boxes" for
their ferrets.  This is a natural thing for them, just as sharpening
claws on furniture or cat trees is for a cat, digging holes and chewing
is for a dog.  The statement that they can also carry rabies only fosters
hysteria.  They are less likely to carry rabies than an outside dog or a
cat.  This statement just fosters resentment against ferrets.
 
Many say ferrets are naturally inquisitive animals and require close
supervision.  Ferrets have a tendency to be mischievous and are
well-known for their chewing habits.  They also can carry rabies.
 
You'll have to excuse my amazement at this statement.  We've had ferrets
for over 7 years now, and never have had one 'get into the walls'.  Yes,
a person must ferret proof their house, for a ferret, with it's natural
inquisitiveness can go through tiny holes, and will investigate anything
it can, but incidences of them infesting walls like roaches is so
ludicrous that I can't believe someone made this statement.  They can
get into a wall, an air duct, anything, but they also find their way out
through their own or the diligence of the owner trying to locate them.
 
As for "bitey", well, here we go again.  They nip, but can be told "no
bite" and will respond to this.  Ferrets are not naturally viscous
animals-they become this way through mistreatment, and then it becomes a
survival mechanism.  They will, however, bite in play, but this is also
natural.  How many times has someone seen 2 dogs fight when playing, are
they not biting each other?  The same with cats.  Our cats get bumps on
them from the play biting they do.  Horses rear, strike with their
hooves, and play bite.  Do we, therefore, call this 'bitey' with them?
 
"If they're free roaming in your house, they can literally get into your
walls," Clemmons said.  "If they're not socialized, they do tend to be
very bitey."
 
 
Here we go again with another ludicrous statement.  Yes, they can chew on
plastic, and all with ferrets know that it is necessary to keep rubber,
foam, plastic, anything like this up so a ferret doesn't chew on it and
get a blockage, but mine have plastic 'eggs' to play with, and I've never
seen them chewed up.  As for flesh, how inane can one be?  No one I know
with ferrets is walking around bandaged up from being chewed on.
Whenever ours are playing a little rough with us, they don't 'chew' on
us or tear us up.  Please, this is just amazing to read.
 
Ferrets tend to chew on soft materials, whether plastic or flesh.
 
Yes, they love to play with a person's feet, hands, and fingers.  So do
cats and dogs.  Anyone with an animal knows if you are barefoot and
wiggle your toes your pet is going to think you're playing with them.
Good heavens, anyone with cats knows if your in bed, move your foot or
leg your liable to be pounced on and have claws attached to your anatomy!
It's the same with a ferret.  And think on it, this is a small animal,
your foot is large and white, with these lovely, wiggly things attached
just begging to be played with.
 
"They definitely experiment, and might take a whack at a toe or something
playfully," said Dan Johnson, a veterinarian at Avian and Exotic Animal
Care in Raleigh.
 
Ferrets are not malicious animals, and the gnawing that is stated here,
wrong wording.  Definitely ferrets need to be taught not to nip, and
there are specific ways to do this.  One must be sure not to strike the
animal.  You can break the nasal passages, cause intense damage to the
cranium, and, if stuck enough, the ferret, out of fear, can become a
biter.  Many, many shelters have ferrets turned into them that have been
abused and have become biters out of fear, and again, this is just not
centralized on ferrets.  Many cats and dogs are abused and the same thing
happens here.  But because ferrets are so misunderstood, this seems to be
a hysteria issue here.
 
While most of the gnawing is not malicious, Johnson said, ferrets should
be taught not to nip at humans.
 
 
You know, this is a ridiculous statement.  We have ferrets around us all
the time, and they do not 'chew' on our noses, ears, or lips.  A baby
will have milk on it's mouth, and sometimes it is thought the ferret
smells this, and this is why it might nip a baby.  One thing people with
babies and small children don't understand is that the child makes a
squealing noise, and the ferret might think this is some time of squeak
toy, or even a mouse.  One has to understand that just like any other
domesticated animal that loves the sound of a play toy, the same applies
with a ferret.  They don't mean to bite the noisemaker, but it's an
irresistible urge to play.  We are not walking around with bites or chew
marks on our noses, ears, or lips.  If anything, our ferrets tend to
stick their noses in our ears and snuffle them.  They also love to kiss
our noses and our lips.
 
"There are numerous reports of crib babies having ferrets climb in there
with them," he said.  "[Ferrets] have a tendency to chew on the soft
parts of the body, like noses and ears and lips."
 
 
Yes, ferrets are banned in California and Hawaii, and in some cities.
But at this moment Californians are fighting to legalize ferrets, as the
laws there are antiquated on this issus.  I don't know the reasons why
they are banned in Hawaii, or in some cities.  I know that in California
the reasons are ridiculous, and this is why citizens there are fighting
to have the law repealed.  I know the ex mayor of New York banned them in
New York city, for what reasons I have no idea, other than from what I
heard he did not like them.  To clarify something, just so you know-the
domesticated ferret cannot live outside, there are no colonies of feral
ferrets.  The only wild ferret is the Black Footed ferret, and it is
under government protection.
 
Some places prohibit people from keeping ferrets as pets.  California and
Hawaii both outlaw the animal, and some cities ban the pet or require
permits.
 
Staff writer Emily Almas can be reached at 829-8927 or
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 4571]