Hi!
I just talked to several of our Animal Control Officers, and found out that
Sarasota, Fl. treats ferret bites basically like dog or cat bites...if you
can prove that the ferret has current vacinations!  They will allow you to
keep the ferret at your home during the quarintine period, if it does not
come into contact with any other animals or people (other than yourself).  I
know for a fact that within the past 5 months a ferret was taken from a
local pet store due to it's biting almost everyone that handled her, (I was
one of the few that she didn't bite, but she sure tried!).  The reason they
even checked on the ferret is because she was ill and the store was doing
nothing for her...she was there on consignment.When the officer was bitten,
(a pretty good bite!), she tried to get the owners to tell her if the ferret
had it's shots, to no avail.  For some unknown reason, the owners would not
tell them a thing!  They chose to "test" the ferret, my personal vet is also
one of their vets, and he was very sad to have to do this.  Unfortunatly,
when I returned to the store to purchase her....she had already been killed.
I feel really awful that this happened, if only I had been there a few days
sooner... I had to raise the money to get her, too late.  But at least I
know that the officer did try to get the shot info and they said they would
have held her for Quarintine, had the owners just been more cooperative.  I
feel that anyone in this county with ferrets that they allow to be handled,
should keep a copy of the rabies vaccine with their ferret carrier!  We do
demos all the time, and our babies are Therapy Ferrets...at Nursing Homes
and Schools...in fact they have been on TV several times, doing therapy work
with the kids.  We strive to educate the public about our babies, even when
they are not with us!
 
About the guide dog episode... I raise and train guide dog puppies for South
Eastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto.  Yes what was written in an earlier post is
true!  A woman actually did get her toe broken by the working pair of dog
and blind person.  She admitted that she wanted to see if the dog would
move, keep in mind that this dog was still in training with it's new
partner!  What was not said is that she had already broken that toe before!
It was proven with X-rays!  And to top that off...she has several
outstanding lawsuits going on all the time!  This seems to be how she gets
attention and makes her money!  Please don't judge all pastors by her
husband!  She wound up dropping the suit because so many people had
fits...but it still costed us thousands of $$$ for our attorney.  What silly
things people will do!
 
BTW we rescue ferrets and find homes for them too!
 
Hope we get to meet some of you all at the get together!
~Jeanine~ and all the critters
[Posted in FML issue 1938]