Well, I hardly know where to begin-- I guess by saying that things went well
in Austin!  Other than the fact that I brought home a migraine souvenir, I
would say that it even went far better than anticipated simply because of
additional contacts made.  I picked Trish up Thursday morning and we drove
to Austin.  Rick White drove up from San Antonio with Bill Gatchel,
Vice-President, and Carrie (I apologize for not knowing the last name),
their Health and Education Director at SAFE.  The second day Rick came up
with Candi, Bill, and Heather, President of SAFE.
 
To give you all an idea what the meetings are like, you should know that
there are actually a series of meetings listed separately on the agenda that
tend to flow one into another without stopping.  Sitting at the front of the
room around a horseshoe table are the board members and other members of the
"committee".  The part that concerned us ferret people was the "Health and
Clinical Services Committee Meeting," whose primary business was to discuss
the proposed amendments to Title 25, Part I, Chapter 169 (Zoonosis Control),
Rules for Rabies Control and Eradication.  The recommended action on these
proposals was for the board to approve them for publication in the Texas
Register.  I was very pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the
members of the Board of Health, even those who had seemed bored or annoyed
by us at the previous meeting we had attended.
 
There were no challenges to the proposals.  Rick and I both briefly
addressed the committee on topics such as why choose a ferret, how many
ferrets are in Texas, and thanks to the Board and Zoonosis control for these
proposals, which will stop the killing of healthy ferrets.  Next, Dr. Jane
Mahlow stood and recognized us ferret people, said she'd enjoyed working
with us and favored the proposals' passage but wanted to be sure to cover
the other point in the proposal, covering the transportation of unvaccinated
dogs and cats from shelters.  Basically, the state legislature made it a
misdemeanor to transport unvaccinated cats or dogs over 3 months of age from
a shelter for any reason.  This would require an unvaccinated animal that
was turned in to be vaccinated ONSITE before being moved, reclaimed by an
owner, or adopted out.  There was much uproar over this, with Texas
Veterinary Medical Assoc., Texas Animal Control Assoc., and an association
of Humane Societies group representatives speaking against this particular
rule (note that NONE of these people fought the ferret issues!).  Rick White
spoke as a ferret shelter operator, concerned that if we got ferret rabies
vaccination mandated, the same rule would be applied to ferrets, putting
extra financial burdens and hardships on the ferret shelters in the state as
they are ALL privately operated, home-based facilities.  We got a bit of
enlightenment, finding that the law was adopted 18 months ago by the TX
Legislature and was an expiring measure taken to try to prevent the spread
of rabies in our rabies epidemic state.  It expires in '97 (Sept.  ?), but
if the Health Dept.  adopts that language into their rules, it is permanent,
and another effort would have to be made to change them back once the
temporary law expires.  What was decided was to strike those lines from the
proposal altogether, leaving only the changes to incorporate ferrets.  This
was the end of topics we were concerned with for Thursday.  Friday, Rick
brought 2 ferrets and passed them around before the meeting began.  Most of
the Board members held and petted the ferrets, and in general quite a fuss
was made of them.  There was also someone I took to be from Austin who I
didn't get to meet who brought in 2 ferrets to meet people.  Thanks for your
attendance-- I'm sorry I didn't get to introduce myseIf!  In this Board
Meeting on Friday, the previously mentioned deletion was announced and the
Board promptly voted to publish the proposals in the Texas Register!  What
happens now is that the proposal will be printed in the Register this week
or next and a 30-day comment period allowed.  Anyone can write in and say
anything about these proposals.  After the comment period ends and all
comments are assimilated, this item will show up on the Board's agenda
again, comments will be taken into consideration and changes possibly made
to the text of the proposal, and a vote will be taken to determine whether
or not the proposal is adopted as a rule.  This will most likely take place
in June or July, according to the secretary to the chairman of the Board.
 
Following is a summary of the proposed changes:
 
1) Under definitions, a line is added "Domestic ferret - Any Mustela
putorius furo." Also, "Observation Period" is changed to include animals
other than cats and dogs: "the observation period for other animals, not
including those defined as high risk or low risk, is 30 days." "High Risk"
and "Low Risk" are lists of specific species or Families, and ferrets are
not included in either category.  Therefore, they qualify for a 30 day
quarantine.
 
2) A measure to require ferrets be quarantined indoors has already been
passed.  Under the specifications for "Facilities for the Quarantining of
Animals", 24-hour access to food and water was added for ferrets.
 
3) Under "Quarantine Method and Testing" "ferret" was added as follows"
"When a domestic dog, cat, or ferret which has bitten a human has been
identified, the owner or custodian will be required to place the animal in
quarantine.  Unvaccinated animals should not be vaccinated against rabies
during the observation period." This means even UNVACCINATED ferrets are
eligible for quarantine, and ALL ferrets should be quarantined if involved
in a bite incident!  This section goes on to say that quarantine should be
done in a TDH approved facility, but that it can be done in the owner's home
if they can meet a list of requirements.  The most important requirements
are that the animal (including ferrets) was vaccinated and that it wasn't a
stray at the time of the bite.  This means Texans, VACCINATE YOUR FERRETS if
for no other reason than to help assure you could qualify for home
quarantine!
 
4) Under "Vaccination Requirement" a recent addition was made (it is already
a permanent rule, but is only a couple of months old) that states "Only
USDA-licensed rabies vaccines with a three-year duration of immunity in dogs
or a vaccine which has been licensed for less than two years, and for which
testing to obtain approval for three-year duration of immunity is in
progress, may be used according to label directions in any species for which
it is approved." What this means is that ferrets vaccinated with Imrab
annually will be recognized as vaccinated animals because Imrab 3 is
licensed as triennially effective in dogs and is labeled for and approved by
the USDA for use in ferrets.
 
I apologize for the long post, but I wanted everyone to know that we're
almost there and it looks very, very good, with most all of the Board
members assuring us that the rules WILL be adopted.
 
Some other good things came out of meeting the folks that came to object to
the "no transport of unvaccinated dogs and cats" proposal.  First, we
discovered that ferrets are NOT illegal in North Richland Hills, TX as we
had believed for so long!  The rep for Texas Animal Control Assoc.  was an
employee of the city of NRH.  She said that they are allowed with a permit,
but that the permit had been made rather expensive to help ensure that only
people who really wanted a ferret would bring one into their city.  The
permit fee is $50.  She (Pam Burney) said that since the rabies vaccine has
been available for so long and the TX Dept. of Health is setting up a
quarantine period, that perhaps it was time to lower the fee to something
reasonable.  The rep from the Austin Humane society and a rep of an
association of humane societies in TX took Rick's card and info on the
shelters in D/FW along with a few contact names who would be willing to come
pick up ferrets they might take in.  This info is to be published in their
newsletter (which also goes to many animal control facilities), and she
(Karen Medicus) asked Trish about writing an article for their newsletter.
Trish and I (and I believe Rick) were also asked about the possibility of
putting on a seminar on ferrets at one of these guys' future conventions!
The animal control folks present all indicated that they were very
interested in handing over ferrets to the ferret shelter system because they
recognize that they simply don't know enough about ferrets and as such do
not want to be responsible for caring for them more than a few days or for
adopting them out.  We will all be most happy to oblige!
 
If you have questions, please e-mail me directly at [log in to unmask] or
write to Trish or Rick.  Thanks to Modern Ferret for the shipment of several
copies of their magazine to Rick to be passed out at the Board meeting!
That was a great touch!  Thanks to all who helped us get ready for this
meeting and provided moral support.
 
          Debra in Ft.Worth
[Posted in FML issue 1553]