January 9, 1997 Pet Ferret Killed Despite New National Guidelines for 10 day
Quarantine
 
National Association of Public Health Veterinarians recommend same treatment
as dogs and cats for ferrets that bite.
 
For more information contact: Jeanne Carley, Californians for Ferret
Legalization & The Ferret Education Foundation (650) 851-3750
 
For Immediate Release:
 
Last night at approximately 7:00P.M., Rocky, a 2 &1/2 year old male neutered
ferret belonging to Pat Wright was euthanized so his brain could be tested
for rabies.  On January 1, 1998, Rocky nipped a cameraman covering the
Ferret Freedom Day March in San Diego, CA, organized by Ferrets Anonymous.
The bite was described as minor by the cameraman"s doctor and did not
require anything other than topical antibiotics and a band-aid.  Pat Wright
surrendered Rocky to animal control to be quarantined in a local
veterinarian's office with the understanding that the animal would not be
euthanized and tested for rabies, but placed under quarantine.  Rabies in
ferrets is extremely rare, and Rocky had been vaccinated against rabies with
a current vaccine.  However, when local animal control authorities contacted
the Sacramento Department of Health Services to inquire if a 10 day
quarantine might suffice instead of a 14 day quarantine, DHS in Sacramento
ordered Rocky"s destruction.
 
What makes the killing of this animal so outrageous is that in October 1997,
the Rabies Compendium Committee of the National Association of State Public
Health Veterinarians, announced that "ferrets are now included with dogs and
cats in all recommendations regarding vaccination, removal of strays,
preexposure vaccination and.... management of animals that bite humans.
These changes were unanimously agreed to by the committee after hearing a
report on the final rabies viral study of ferrets in which a variety of bat
rabies virus strains were used to in infect ferrets." The Compendium
recommendations were published on Dec. 1, 1997, and were the result of a
three year study conducted by Kansas State University, the Centers for
Disease Control and the U.S. Public Health Service.
 
The Compendium"s findings: "In all but one case, shedding was concomitant
with onset of recognizable signs; one animal may have shed virus for as long
as 4 days prior to onset of signs.  The longest an animal may have shed
virus prior to death was 6 days.  A confinement and observation period of 10
days after a ferret bites a person should be sufficient to protect public
health." A letter survey of State Public Health Departments nation-wide
reveals a rapid and immediate move to quarantine ferrets in bite
circumstances in accordance with the new Rabies Compendium guidelines.  But
not, apparently, in California.  California Department of Health
representatives who did not hesitate to point to the previous Rabies
Compendium Committee recommendation that healthy ferrets that bite may have
to be euthanized and tested for rabies because the shed time was unknown,
now ignore the Compendium recommendations that ferrets be quarantined.
 
The California Department of Health Services is sending a clear message to
ferret owners:
 
Science will be set aside for ferrets involved in bite instances in
California.  The California Department of Health Services will kill your
healthy pet ferret if you surrender it to authorities.
 
Public Health is not served by driving pet ferrets and their owners
underground in bite circumstances.  Public Health is not served by ignoring
the latest scientific information in pursuit of a mean spirited and
vindictive policy of hurting ferret owners by needlessly killing the pets
they love.  It"s time California adopt rational policies where domesticated
ferrets are concerned.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I received a call from someone within the Public Health Department saying
that science was the basis for this call which I disagree with entirely but
he seemed to be a reasonable person.  The statement was made that DHS was
waiting for the bat studies to be published.  If they are not published
soon, or ever, we will have to insist that the CDHS accept the NASPH
recommendations in the absence of the publication of the bat studies.
 
Jeanne Carley CFL
www.ferretnews.org
[Posted in FML issue 2182]