I am composing a letter to send to the two original authors of the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article.  I will also send the letter to
MSNBC, which still carries it.
 
I'm no expert on ferret matters, so I will not challenge their quote of
the state epidemiologist about infants smelling like rabbits (I'm no
expert about them either -- but I'd never thought infants smelled like
baby rabbits!).
 
 
In my letter, I'll just state what I understand to be true.  Cases that
have been thoroughly investigated have shown that these infrequent
attacks had been provoked by an adult's abuse of the ferret -- usually
through starvation.
 
I assume that this is simply a case of newspaper writers trying to
please their editors by being as "sensational" as possible.  The
epidemiologist's quote is certainly gratuitous (the only two paragraphs
in the story that do not pertain to monkeypox are the two that slander
ferrets).
 
I'll CC: my post to the FML.  As well as any response -- should I get a
response.
 
I did a search for reliable information on this issue via Google,
Lexus-Nexus, and several academic search engines.  There isn't much
available.  You can find summaries of the offending "studies", but
works that contradict them are not to be found.  That's a shame.
 
(If you can direct me to that info - you can send it to my e-mail
address).
 
Thank you.
 
Greg Paul Johnson
[Posted in FML issue 4192]