The thing to do is to educate the people who are ***creating the
show*** so that they regularly mention the needed things to take
pressure off ferrets BEFORE things could go wrong:
1. That ***per capita animal*** serious ferret attacks are about at the
rate of about 1/200th that of dogs, and are about the same rate as for
pet rabbits.
2. That NO pets should be unsupervised with infants, toddlers, or young
children.
3. That the parents engaged in neglect, possibly in abuse, and that
most animal attacks involve animals who have been neglected or abused.
4. That ferrets do not pose a rabies risk because there are effective
vaccines and even in the very cases in which they have been infects
they tend to die before they could pass it. Hence, although there is a
hypothetical risk and the risk could not be said to be zero there has
never worldwide been any case recorded of ferrets passing on rabies to
anyone.
The letters need to be polite. The last thing we need is for the phrase
"rabid ferret owners" to be used.
I am very, very, very short on time so if people could look up further
references to supplement the ones I already gave, please, do so.
In case this is needed:
>My worst fear is that they will NOT point out that other pets have a
>worse rate for serious injury, or that parents need to watch ANY type
>of pet near a young child, or that ferrets have little mouths so such
>injuries take time and with the screaming that would have been going
>on response must have taken a while. Point out that it is like
>comparing the size of a small chihuahua mouth to that of a larger dog.
>
> <http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091014/NEWS/910139923/1070&ParentProfile=1058>
>
>Request that if they mention the cause they point out the other pets
>have worse rates and tell some of those stories, too:
>
>http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/dr90210/
>
>http://www.drrobertrey.com/dr-90210.htm
>
>BE POLITE and be grammatical. Use your spell checker. Tell good and
>helpful stories about ferrets. Point out that the serious injury rate
>by ferrets is 1/200th ***per capita pet*** (which means that it is
>adjusted for the comparative numbers of pets) that of dogs, and is
>similar to the serious injury rate by pet rabbits. They can find
>some of that info in a past issue of FDA Veterinarian, May/June 1991,
>Vol.V1, No.III, by pediatrician Dr. Freddie Ann Hoffmann, pages 1-6.
>There sometimes are also bite rate data available from state public
>health veterinarians and the websites they have which are usually
>connected to the state health departments. It may take a bit of
>searching.
>
>[Moderator's note: Sukie sent the above mentioned issue (which seems
>to me like a compilation of pages from multiple issues) as a scanned
>document, which you can read here:
> http://ferretmailinglist.org/special/FDA_VET93x.pdf
>The publication can be freely copied/distributed. BIG]
>
>Those who want to send more thorough letters may want to use portions
>from these and may want to share the URLs of further resources with
>other people here at the FML:
>
> http://health.state.ga.us/pdfs/epi/gers/Nov07GER.pdf
> http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/68/6/593.pdf
> <http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2000.217.190?cookieSet=1&journalCode=javma>
> http://www.in.gov/isdh/21215.htm
> <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+bite+out+of+the+budget%3F+Costs+and+characteristics+of+animal+bites...-a019404376>
> http://www.ferret.org/read/faq.html
and
>Subject: This would help (Re: action alert)
>
>Most attacks by pets are related to the pets being neglected or
>abused, but I simply don't have time to also look up the authoritative
>articles on that. Could people, please, do internet searches at places
>like the ASPCA and humane societies to find the URLs for such articles
>and post there on the list so that people can use those in their
>letters, too.
The last 3 comments in
<http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/10/14/article/pet_that_helps_disabled_man_draws_controversy>
also have links or can lead you to links that can help show ferrets in
a good light, too.
[Posted in FML 6490]
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