On the intubation of ferrets, I am aware of this happening in Texas as
well.  A lady who used to shelter in the Beaumont, TX, area and who was
herself a nurse began a program to secure more humane treatment for these
ferrets and to place them rather than euthanizing them at the end of the
training session.  She stated that there were 3 hospitals within 10 miles
of her location that were using ferrets like this.  So yes, ferrets are
used for intubation training.  Are they asphixiated?  In some cases the
shelterer did describe some permanent damage, but I don't specifically
recall if it resulted in death.  Deaths were noted from poor shipping
procedures and procedure induced infection and, of course, killing of the
ferrets at the end of training classes.  Do large numbers of ferrets meet
this sort of fate?  I don't know.  I seem to recall the shelterer
indicating that something like 6-10 ferrets every quarter were involved.
Some of this information comes from my personal coorespondance with this
woman.  Some of it can be read in an article 1/3 - 1/2 way down the page
at http://www.texasferret.org/news/olympics.shtml.
 
Debra in Fort Worth
[Posted in FML issue 3862]