Bad new and good news:
 
Your faxes had an effect: Lake County Prosecutors office was willing to go
with a 30 day quarantine period, even though the ferret is NOT vaccinated.
There are several animal lovers there, and they try their best to avoid
unnecessary testing.  Unfortunately, the West Virginia victim is pressing
the issue and the county will honor the victim's request for immediate kill
and test.  By the way, the Lake Co health dept official, Mr. Ed Benning, was
less amiable.  He apparently never had anyone say "No" to him before and he
was extremely pissed and showed it.
 
As of this morning, the ferret was in the owner's possession, but I don't
have a current status.
 
In Elyria, things didn't look too good initially.  Yesterday the owner
received a registered letter from the Lorain County Health department
requiring her to turn over the ferret Bevis.  (According to our attorney,
health departments can always declare a public health emergency and do what
they want, getting some judge to ok it after the fact.)
 
But our attorney used the Lake County position and the fact that Bevis was
vaccinated last October to get them to agree to a 30 day quarantine if the
victim agrees.  (Also, I had a phone conversation with the very same health
official during the Kodo incident in which he told me quarantines may be
acceptable for vaccinated ferrets.)
 
At this time Bevis has a reprieve.  This evening we will confer on how to
approach the victim (next door neighbor, elderly gentleman, not an animal
lover) to get him to agree to the quarantine.  We do not yet know where a
quarantine would take place.
 
Our thanks to you all for your support and assistance.  Special thanks to
our attorney, Lisa Waltz, who is tackling these issues with great
enthusiasm.
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2041]