I finally got a copy of Saturday morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper,
which covered the purported ferret bite incident on page 1.  After reading
some of the details, I'm outraged that the ferret is being blamed for the
child's wounds.
 
According to the article, the mother, age 21, said she drank a 40 oz bottle
of beer and her live-in boyfriend, age 22, drank 2 bottles.  They fell
asleep on the couch with the baby between them.  She awoke about 7 am,
turned on the light, and saw blood all over the baby's face.  She said
she found the ferret in its cage.
 
Excuse me, how did the ferret get in its cage after supposedly savaging the
infant?  And who washed the blood off of it?  There was certainly no blood
visible in the many pictures taken by the news media of the little light
silver mitt with a black nose in its cage at the city kennel.  And how the
hell can 2 people sleep through a child being attacked by an animal right
next to them??
 
I am told that the pattern of repeated bites is far more typical of rodents
than ferrets.  Why is the assumption made that a caged ferret caused the
wounds??
 
Please feel free to express your concerns about this incident to the media
listed in my other post.
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2225]