FYI - here is the NYC Friends of Ferrets letter to HSUS executive director
Paul Irwin in response to receiving their statement on pet ferrets.  Members
of the FML are urged to keep the communications to HSUS up until they revise
their position.
 
June 19, 1995
 
Mr. Irwin:
 
   On June 1, 1995, we wrote to you regarding the remarks made by Rachel Lamb
on CBS This Morning regarding pet ferrets which are quite disturbing as they
raise issues of the comparative accuracy of HSUS bite data and the overt
political activism on the part of HSUS which affect pet owners' rights.  To
this date we have not received a response to our letter, and despite several
calls to your office, you have not had the courtesy to take or return our
calls.  This conduct is simply unacceptable and this issue will not go away.
 There are millions of ferret owners across this country, many of whom are
organized in clubs and in touch with each other via newsletters and computer
on-line services, including the Internet, and some, like us, who are involved
in legal action on behalf of ferret owners.
 
   I have spoken briefly to Rachel Lamb, and I have also mailed her data on
ferret bites which support the relative safety of keeping pet ferrets as
compared to dogs.  (I find it ironic that HSUS had teamed up this month with
the Postal service to raise awareness of dog bite safety!)  We look forward
to a continuing dialogue with her; however, I must express my reservations as
to her impartiality in view of learning that Ms. Lamb is a former employee of
the California Dept. of Health Services, which is known for disseminating
misleading and sometimes false data on pet ferrets.  We have not heard back
from her as of this date.
 
   I received the October 1992 HSUS position paper on pet ferrets from Ms.
Lamb, and we have some serious objections to some of the language of this
document, as we shall discuss below.
 
   In the second paragraph, captioned "Rabies," it is inaccurate to state
that all public health officials universally recommend that ferrets who bite
should be killed and tested for rabies.  Many local public authorities have
recognized that a quarantine period is as appropriate for ferrets as it is
for dogs and cats (it is my understanding that just this month the state
legislature of New Hampshire adopted an official quarantine policy),
particularly in view that most pet ferrets are household animals which have
no exposure to the rabies vectors only found out of doors.  To kill and test
an animal which has no possibility of having rabies merely constitutes
cruelty to animals -- and should be inconsistent with the HSUS charter of
protecting animals.  The only justified recommendation for rabies testing
should be for any ferret suspected of rabies, i.e., an animal which has had
known exposure to a rabies vector or has been of unknown origin and
unvaccinated, if the circumstances deem it necessary. But the actual
suspicion of rabies infection must be established to warrant such an action.
 
   I have two ferrets for over five years and I can tell you with a 100%
certainty that neither is carrying rabies.  Should my animals be sacrificed
if one of them nips a human who perhaps squeezes them to hard?  It's
absolutely preposterous.  And I can tell you I would not allow it under any
circumstances no matter what well-meaning but misguided public health
authorities demand.  The HSUS statement on rabies is misleading and does not
further the best welfare of innocent animals.
 
   In the fourth paragraph, captioned "Behavior," you first erroneously make
reference to "nocturnal habits."  Ferrets are not nocturnal.  Period.  Mine
sleep through the night as well as I do.  We find this reference inexcusably
sloppy and wonder how it got in there to begin with.  Ferrets are rarely
"difficult to contain and control," as you go on to state -- no more so than
some dogs and cats.   And no "close supervision" is required for most
ferrets, as you caution -- my animals have had run of the house for their
entire lives and are never confined to a cage.  This sort of hyperbole belies
an anti-ferret bias on the part of the author of this document.  What you
mean to say is ferrets have characteristics which need to be understood
before buying one to protect both the ferret's and the owner's welfare.
Education should be stressed over scare tactics.
 
   Your paragraph captioned "Summary" begins with a negative opinion on the
suitability of pet ferrets for "most people," which we find pompous and
didactic.  Again, nowhere is education mentioned if someone chooses -- as a
free American -- to own a pet ferret.
 
   This three-year-old statement needs to be revised now.  We would be happy
to work with you in drafting new language or providing data.  But we will not
silently sit by as this document is distributed by the HSUS and Ms. Lamb
carries on her public campaign of misinformation and political activism. We
require a response to these criticisms.  As a public institution issuing
public statements, we believe you are obliged to respond.  If you do not
choose to open a dialogue, then one can only assume that you operate in bad
faith, and we will take it from there.
 
Very truly yours,
Gary Kaskel
co-founder, NYC Friends of Ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 1231]