FML member Cathy's letter in the Ottawa Citizen:
<http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/letters/story.html?id=119f50bf-a5bc-440a-beb5-5834f9b566ce>
Mary:
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/101327

Remember that in the U.S. right now we are at risk of the Justice
Department and some politicians gutting the service animal provisions
of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They are trying very hard to
do so, wanting to so restrict things that almost the only animals
recognized at all would be trained seeing eye dogs. Even some trained
animals are being proposed to be removed from consideration, such as
the trained monkeys used by some people who are unable to use their
arms. So, the people whose untrained ferrets (or dogs) just turn out to
be good for seizure detection in time to avoid a seizure by promptly
taking meds, or avoid a fall by laying down in a safe place would not
be able to have those animals with them. If you think that this does
not involve you, then think again. At least one person who is in this
position began seizures due to a hit and run driver. Another reality
is that the proportion of injured military personnel who have brain
injuries is very high. Removing animals who can detect seizures in time
from consideration as service animals is one more insult for those
people who have served our country and already paid such a high price.

I recently sent the FML a post with information on ferrets as service
animals, and ferrets in relation to human allergies (since that HAD
been a proposed transit argument against them being used on Ottawa
buses but the data were able to remove that argument).
******Bill, is there an easy way for people who missed that post to get
to it so that they can snarf data and check out links for their own
letters to the Justice Department and their members of Congress, as
well as to others? Okay, I made it easier and just sent one that is
further trimmed from the earlier version.******
[Moderator's note: The archives will probably by updated soon, and
your other post, as you say, goes a long way to provide some of the
info. Beyond that, I'm always willing to consider making any relevant
file accessible -- people should feel free to ask. BIG]

I am sure that others here have further ideas about who could (or
should) use the data, but still remain under the cloud of
misinformation on ferrets -- such as the Delta Society
http://www.deltasociety.org/

Please, share those resources and info! We need to make sure that the
Service Animals portions of the ADA stay good enough to really help
people. As Frances Woodard's lawyer, Terrance Green said, "what all
service animals have in common is that they minimize their owner's
functional limitations".

http://www.usdoj.gov/contact-us.html
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

This post may be carried to other sites or ferret news sources. If used
then it must be unaltered and complete, as well as properly credited.
Links and short quotes can of course be used without violating
copyright.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6071]