Below is an excerpt of a fax sent to some of the Michigan media outlets.  I
hope I haven't taken a big leap of logic in interpreting Judge Carpathe's
findings, but maybe this will help frame the debate.
 
   ******************
Recently, your paper (or station) received a news story over the AP and UPI
news wires about a Saginaw ferret facing execution because of bureaucratic
indifference.  I urge that you cover this case because of the serious issues
that it raises in regard to public health enforcement and the rights of pet
owners in Michigan and elsewhere.
 
<SNIP: Brief summary of case before the appeals court> Still, the judge
ruled that there was still a possibility that the ferret could be harboring
rabies, even though it might not have been shedding the virus at the time of
the incident.  <SNIP: scenario of bat flying into Jacobs home undetected and
leaving an invisible wound on Kodo>
 
Following the logic of this ruling, then, any ferret in Michigan, and any
dog or cat, could be subject to seizure and sacrificed for rabies testing
because of the chance that a bat could have bitten it without the owner's
knowledge.  Such an extension of public health enforcement would apply to
any pet, whether or not it had been vaccinated against rabies, and whether
or not it had been involved in a bite incident.  This will happen if this
ruling is allowed to stand.
 
The question has been raised whether taxpayer dollars should continue to be
expended on this case of one ferret.  Actually, this case highlights a
problem of expenditure for public health enforcement based on a faulty
understanding of the science of rabies, and the wholesale --and expensive--
slaughter of household pets in Michigan.
 
Massachusetts and other states have found a less expensive and more
effective way of guarding the public health than the indiscriminate
killing-and-testing of pets.  In Massachusetts, dogs, cats, and ferrets
involved in biting incidents are quarantined at the owner's expense, and in
the owner's home, for 10 days.  The rabies situation in Massachusetts is no
less serious than in Michigan -- it is epizootic among the raccoon and bat
populations here.  Nonetheless, Massachusetts public health officials have
weighed the scientific evidence and deduced that the public is better served
by observing a live animal than by killing it.
 
Won't you please do your pet-owning readers (or viewers) a favor and
publicize this case?
 
The whole world is watching Michigan.  Please don't let us -- and Kodo --
down.
 
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about
Massachusetts policy.
 
Lee McKee
Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1958]