There will always be negative things to say about any pet,
unfortunately. And you're right, the DFG just doesn't want to hear it.
Any logical person will "see the truth" when you relate a statistic
back to them about how many people are KILLED by dogs alone each year,
vs. how many people have been hurt by a ferret per year. Proportionally
it adds up to dogs being more dangerous. This was not a ferret attack
so much as a parental abuse/neglect case, and reminding them the child
was taken into CPS should be enough...if people honestly want to
believe that ferrets are dangerous after hearing that there are likely
over 800,000 ferrets in the US alone, and that there have only been a
handful of cases of injury....then nothing is going to change their
mind IMO. Meanwhile, dogs continue to be legal and kill and maim
people, even their owners sometimes....

72 million dogs in the US
4 million+ ferrets in the US (from 2003)

In 2008, there were 316,000 dog bite cases in emergency rooms in the US
alone. There were 9,500 people admitted to the hospital for dog bite
treatments....

That means about 866 ER visits per day, 26 bad enough to require a stay
in the hospital. 23 fatal dog attacks happened in 2008. These dogs were
not all pit bulls. One was an Old English sheepdog mix, a Lab puppy, a
Golden Retriever, a Husky mix, a Jack Russell Terrier, a Doberman
pincer, 2 Huskies..the rest pits or pit-mixes.

Meanwhile...try to get any statistics on ferret bites. They're out
there....but as far as statistics per year? I'd like to see some for
the last 5 years...surely there is some place to get this?

As far as I can tell, there are a roundabout 65 cases of
bites/scratches per year. And supposedly 13 "attacks" ever recorded.
But these are just numbers floating around the internet. I have no way
to validate them, nor do I have any way to know how many ferrets or
dogs there actually are. But, going with these numbers... (and please:
my math is probably wrong so please be kind LOL)

So....rate of dog to number of reported injuries:
72,000,000 dogs: 316,000 cases of injury = 0.00438
Rate of ferret to number of reported injuries:
4,000,000 ferrets: 65 cases of injury = 0.00001625

I'm not good with math...does that mean like a dog bite is around 269
times more likely to occur than a ferret bite? Or something....I really
don't know if I did that right so please take that with a grain of salt
along with this whole post.

Not to mention the seriousness of dog bites vs ferret bites...and of
course, the deaths. If someone still wants to complain, they're just
going to complain, and I stop talking to them and/or ignore them. Often
people will come up to booths and try to argue with me. I don't even
give them the pleasure anymore and they will move on when they realize
they can't get to me.

L

[Posted in FML 7001]