Several people have had concerns that Warm Fuzzy was being singled out by
the SVFC.  This is not the case.
 
Several months ago, Warm Fuzzy had active Aluetians disease in their
shelter after accepting ferrets from a irresponsible source.  Of course
they had absolutely no idea that these turn-ins were infected with
Aluetians at the time they accepted them.  A few days ago, SVFC and LIFE
became aware of this situation.  They were asked to not bring ferrets to
the SVFC show.  They were NOT singled out.  A breeder voluntarily elected
to stay home, and another breeder was flat out told that they were not
welcome, period.  Warm Fuzzy was never told they could not come, simply
asked not to bring ferrets.  When they said that if they couldn't bring
ferrets that they wouldn't come, the organizers of the show offered to
send their table money back if they wanted.  Warm Fuzzy then said that
they would be there, without ferrets.
 
When this situation was brought to my attention several days before the
show, I did not jump to conclusions or reactions.  I didn't know much about
Aluetians disease, so I called my vet, and asked him to reasearch it.  He
contacted a couple of other well reknowned vets in the ferret community,
as well as researching it in several ferret medical books and VIN.  The
information that he received told him that Aluetians is transmitted via
aerosal and direct contact with feces and saliva; it can take 80-120 days
for antibodies to occur and be readable in titer tests; and that testing
at 30 days post exposure and then again at 120 days post exposure is
recommended.  He also said not much is known about how long a ferret
remains a carrier post-exposure.  After reviewing this data, and the
situation, he strongly urged that anyone who had seen cases of active and
symptomatic Aluetians in their homes/shelters should defer from bringing
ferrets exposed to this disease to the show.
 
Had the professional medical opinion been that there was no risk, no
action would have been taken.  But this is not the case, and when facing
an overwhelming amount of medical evidence, the most responsible thing that
could be done was.  Although there were people threatening a boycott of the
show if the Hertzogs brought ferrets, this was not the strongest motivating
factor in our request to them.  Rather, the preponderance of strong
clinical evidence regarding potential transmission of a fatal disease was
the driving factor.
 
Taking this expert advice, BethAnn Lee and I acted.  We wrote a very honest
letter and handed it out before people even entered the show hall.  We
never mentioned anyone by name in this letter.  We asked several people to
either not attend or not bring ferrets who had been exposed.  Regretfully
the Warm Fuzzy people were part of that demographic group.  As I repeatedly
told Shirley yesterday, we have no malice against Shirley and Clarence.
This could have happened to anyone, and they are not alone in the affected
group of people.  When I asked Shirley "What can I do to make you happy?
What can I do for you?", she was unable to give me a response.  We feel
terrible that this happened to them and the others affected, however, we
have an overriding responsibility to the entire community to take any and
all reasonable precautions.  Of course any time that ferrets are taken into
public, especially to a show, there is risk involved.  But, responsible
show organziers take steps to minimize these risks, and this is what was
done in theis case.
 
No one in LIFE or SVFC has a personal vendetta against the Hertzog's or
Warm Fuzzy.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  This was explained
repeatedly to Shirley.  We feel very badly that she is in the situation
that she is in, however we also feel a responsibility to the other ferrets
and their owners who were going to be at the show to take reasonable steps
to protect them.  Hopefully, any and all questions regarding the health of
their ferrets as well as the ferrets of the others affected will be
resolved over time.
 
Anne Ryan
President, LIFE
[Posted in FML issue 2866]