Some additional information that may be useful, to put things in
perspective.  In Ontario, population ~8 million, there are, according
to the Ministry of Health, about 1100 confirmed cases of rabies in
animals per year.  Approximately 40-50% of them are in domestic animals;
mostly cats, dogs, cattle.  I don't think that there's been a single
case of rabies in ferrets.  The MOH takes rabies very seriously - they've
been so effective, that not a single case of rabies in humans has occured
since the early 1950s.  As far as I can tell, there's relatively little
rabies hysteria associated with ferrets.  Ferrets are banned in some
municipalities, but these are usually exotic animal bans (so you don't
have to put up with a neighbor owning a tiger) run amok.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0770]