Anonymous: Actually, our experience is that if ferrets are trained with
times out (instead of physical punishment) when bad and tons of attention
when good that bites almost never happen and most never bite after
kithood.  (We've had hard to train ones for about 2 decades -- badly
abused ones, ill ones, ones with deformities, etc.)
 
Why we get upset:
1. because historically every case is blown up by the anti-ferret
activists till it sounds like there are 50 separate cases being
discussed.  The press used to do this, too, since ferret bite stories
when the bite is serious are unusual, but over time they have learned
a lot more and many have been using common sense, realizing that the
exaggerations which result hurt many of their readers/veiwers/listeners.
 
2. because after all of the years that it took to get the needed research
done to change the _Compendium of Animal Rabies Control and Prevention_,
and all of the work it took to spread the information around, there STILL
are some physicians and animal control people who actually think that
there isn't an effective USDA approved rabies vaccine for ferrets (IMRAB
3 for well over a decade), or who think that ferrets are rabies vectors
(when there are no cases world-wide of anyone ever anywhere getting
rabies from a ferret), and who press for needless killing of the ferrets.
Did you know that over $5,000 was spent by one FML member alone making
key people in the 50 states were aware of the changes when the CDC
research on rabies viral shedding was completed in ferrets and the
Compendium was changed?  (Believe it or not, not all state public health
vets knew that in 1998.)  Did you know that a large number of people and
clubs here on the FML have been careful over the last 5 years to get
http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabcont.asp
The Compendium of Animal Rabies Control
    and
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Ques&Ans/q&a.htm
Easy to read rabies Q&A
to hospitals, physicians and animal control people?  Many still do that
on a regular basis.  If you haven't, then it's a good time to begin so
that your area's health and AC people are educated.
 
Lack of education and misunderstanding often have caused anti-ferret laws
to be pressed or even passed in communities.  It is by fighting these
problems that those efforts have been successful.  BUT, it is EASIER by
far to AVOID the problems by derailing bad press early on than it is to
challenge proposed legislation, so it is just a smart way to work.
 
That help?
[Posted in FML issue 4369]