I placed a phone call to Dr. John Neil's office yesterday afternoon and
spoke with him for about 15-20 minutes concerning his order to have the
ferret killed and tested.  He was polite, courteous and actually listened
to everything I had to say.  Basically, I told him I was outraged, and
that logic  should have dictated there was no longer any reason to kill
and test the ferret at this point.  He simply repeated a few times that
he wasn't as confident in that assessment as I am; basically his argument
was that he didn't feel able to take the "risk" of not testing the ferret.
 
I guess the upshot of all this is that he listened to what I had to say
and tried to respond accordingly.  I didn't have a lot of hard data
citations to give him; just my understanding of the information I've seen
on the FML.  I would strongly urge everyone else, especially those with
better credentials than mine, to let him know how you feel.  Any hard
facts (i.e. studies) anyone can supply him with might help prevent a
future tragedy of the same sort.
 
Chris von Seggern
Bellingham,  WA
 
        I am Ferret of Borg
                Bitter Apple is Irrelevant
                        Litterboxes are Irrelevant
                                Your Socks will be Assimilated
[Posted in FML issue 1087]