Today was the "Big" meeting day in Concord, NH.  Dr. Hoffman, Randy Sellers,
a couple of our local reps to the State House, our shelter vet, our shelter
lawyer and Joan and I on one side.  On the other side was Commissioner Bird
of Dept of Public Health and Human Services, and Dr. McGinnis the State Vet.
 
All in all it was an "interesting" meeting.  The Dept of public Health agreed
that ferrets and rabies control come under the Department of Agriculture.  He
red a bulletin that was just released, recognizing the effectiveness of IMRAB
for ferrets.  He also agreed to take "under consideration" the misinformation
put out in bulletins over the past two years by his department (our laywer
insisted).
 
The State Vet agreed that under the current state law, he had no powers to
kill any animal with out the owner's permission, but could quarentine
animals.  (We had our first ferret quarentine a couple of weeks ago resulting
from correspondence between our laywer and the Commissioner of Agriculture.
 A ferret kit bit a woman in a pet store.  The animal officer took the ferret
to a local animal shelter where it was placed on a 10 day quarentine and
returned to the pet store afterward.)
 
We still have a LOOOONNNNG way to go.  The State Vet wants a law passed
setting the quarentine period officially, and would probably like to see the
entire process spelled out before he's comfortable.  Until then, the 10 day
quarantine that we had may not become very common.  There is still strong
sentiment in favor of kill and test "just to be sure".
 
But, a big thank you to Dr. Hoffman and the AFA, and to Randy Sellers and
DEFFBAM.
 
Dick B.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0922]