At 02:00 AM 5/25/2003 -0400, Clare Sebok <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>SARS has recently been linked to civet cats.  I just read a SARS article
>on the Baltimore Sun's web site which states, "Civet cats are from the
>same animal family as ferrets." WRONG!  Civet cats are Viverrids, but
>ferrets are Mustelids.  Since this was an AP article, this misinformation
>may have been widely disseminated.
 
I looked on the AP wire and found no mention of ferrets in any of the
SARS-civet stories.  Maybe this was something someone at the Sun did
on his own?  The AP stories say that civets are related to mongooses
and that they are "weasel-like" in appearance -- maybe the Sun editor
misunderstood?  I also checked Reuters (UPI doesn't have its content up
for the public), and, again, no mention of ferrets.  Our newspaper is an
AP source and had no mention of ferrets in the SARS-civet stories.  I
also checked news web sites (CNN, MSNBC), which did not mention ferrets
in relation to SARS.  I think that some editors might have been confused
by the likening of a civet to a large weasel -- but every source I
checked said that it *looked like* a weasel, not that it was.  Many of
the sources correctly stated that the civet is in the Viverridae family
and are related to the mongoose.  Those that didn't state that didn't
mention the civet's family at all.
 
So, hopefully, this error in the Sun is not as widely disseminated as it
might seem.
 
--Mary & the Fuzzies
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mary R. Shefferman, Editor, Modern Ferret Magazine
Trixie, Koosh, & Gabby, The Modern Ferrets
Read my blog! http://www.modernferretblog.com/mary
See my cool stuff! http://www.topicaltees.com
[Posted in FML issue 4159]