Hello, this is Susie Lee of the Ferret And Dove Sanctuary.
 
The word I'm talking about getting out to the general public is all of
Sukie's and her associates' fine research on ferrets and monkeypox.  I
took the time to e-mail five pages' worth of carefully quoted material
sent by Sukie including quoting every source and web-site addy which has
been submitted to the FML, to our local newspaper, which is a member of
the USA Today's Gannett news services.  What they did with it is edit
it way, way, WAY down to Just a few paragraphs on the "letters to the
editor" page and ascribe all the quotes to me rather than their true
sources, but the main thing is that the word is out to the general public
and in print about the truth about ferrets in relation to monkeypox.
Because it "was in the paper", and notice was brought (by me) to the
local pet stores, they now have a cutout copy of this important
information (in print) right at their sales desks.
 
Here is what was printed in the newspaper, again, AFTER the editors
chopped the very living heck out of it.  It can be found on
www.pensacolanewsjournal.com when you do a search there for letters
and the July 19, 2003 date.  ...
 
Ferrets OK
 
Having good data is always useful.  There have even been some authorities
who thought that the monkeypox bans might apply to ferrets rather than,
or as well as, to specific rodents, so here is the information and you
will see that the rodents under question for monkeypox are prairie dogs;
tree squirrels (Sciurus); rope squirrels (Funisciurus); dormice
(Graphiurus); Gambian giant pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus); brush-
tailed porcupines (Atherurus africanus); and striped mice (Typomys).
Ferrets are not involved.
 
So that the confusion doesn't increase, there is a lot in
http://www.fda.gov on ferrets, but there is nothing there on ferrets and
monkeypox, which makes sense since there is no reason at this point to
think that they get it.
 
The order prohibits the importation of all rodents from Africa.  In
addition, it prohibits within the United States the distribution, sale,
transportation and intentional release into the environment of prairie
dogs and the following rodent species: tree squirrels, rope squirrels,
dormice, Gambian giant pouched rats, brush-tailed porcupines and striped
mice.
 
 .......................................................
 
(that's it!...see how they shortened the very heckified-ness out of it?)
 
My suggestion is that perhaps many more among us can send their own
local newspapers all the correct information, again with all their
right-and-proper sources to the main editors and also the local-features
editors of each of their own newspapers and as whatever gets published
does, then we shall have a that-much-better informed general public.  At
least minimally!  Because there are still more people who do NOT have
computers or "access" than do, and those are the folks who read
newspapers.
 
Susie Lee of the Ferret & Dove Sanctuary...
 
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html
 
It's worth a try!
[Posted in FML issue 4214]