We were absolutely shocked and horrified when we got the call from another
Ferret's Anonymous member about the killing of Rocky, Pat Wright's ferret.
Although we felt like calling Pat immediately, realizing that he was
probably is shock, we waited until tonight, Friday night.
 
Pat told us that Dr. Gresham of the San Diego County Health Department is
the one who gave the final order to kill Rocky.  Pat had been assured that
Rocky would be quarantined at approximately 5pm Thursday, and shortly after
6pm Rocky was killed to perform an unnecessary rabies test.  The Health
Department had been informed that Rocky was current on his rabies shots.
This fact didn't deter them.
 
Prior to all this, Pat pleaded with Tom Toklar, the cameraman who had been
bitten, to take the rabies prophylactics which would have made rabies
testing of Rocky a moot point.  Pat offered him whatever financial incentive
it would take, but the cameraman would not help.
 
Pat, Faith and I all believe that Rocky was probably killed so as to get
back at Pat Wright for all his efforts as a strong ferret legalization
activist and the founder and current president Ferret's Anonymous.
 
Pat will be publishing the names and addresses of these people in his next
newsletter which will be coming out next week.  We are also trying to find
email addresses for them.  If anyone can find these email addresses, please
let us know as we would like to forward them to Pat and make sure they get
posted on the FML.  He seemed too upset for us to press him for the mailing
information or even the correct spelling tonight.
 
Though Pat's newsletter, everyone got to know Rocky and even those who never
met him in person felt that they knew him.  His antics, play, personality
were related in many of the articles Pat wrote.  For those of us who had
actually met Rocky, the loss is even greater.
 
In California, when Rocky was killed yesterday, we not only lost Rocky, but
we also lost any reason to ever believe the word of our government
officials.  Those same officials assured Pat that Rocky would be
quarantined.  We lost all motivation to ever vaccinate our ferrets for
rabies, as this doesn't seem to deter the bureaucracy from killing our
favorite pets.  We lost all motivation to ever let the Press or other public
handle our pets, as any accidental scratch could lead to the death of our
close ferret friends.  Those of us living in California, who have been
involved in the ferret legalization effort, have long since lost the
illusion that our government is "of the people, by the people and for the
people."
 
We all bid Rocky a sad farewell, but hope that people who love ferrets from
all over the world will tell those people directly involved in Rocky's
murder how we feel about their despicable act.
 
Don Hunt and Faith Arnold
Hyper-Fur Ferrets' Products
Makers of CHEWEASEL edible ferret chew toys,
Visit our web page at: http://www.artnet.net/~hyperfur
[Posted in FML issue 2182]