The reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer who wrote on the possibility of
it being rat bites is Karin Scholz. I have spoken with her directly and she
seems genuinely interested in this case.
 
We don't KNOW if the cage was locked.  The mother said she checked the
ferret and found him in his cage in the morning.  AFTER they were arrested,
the father said the ferret had escaped from his cage before because it was
broken.  We don't KNOW if it was really broken.  We don't KNOW if escape
from means the ferret could also get back in.  We don't KNOW if the police
have investigated this.
 
We also don't KNOW if the attending physicians at the hospital made any
special note of the shape of the wounds, or if they considered what type of
animal may have caused them.  Have you ever tried to get information from a
hospital on a patient not related to you?  They couldn't even tell me who to
talk to about this issue.
 
But right now we want to keep a low profile on just what happened.  Our
first concern is to make sure the ferret is turned over to Jean after the
quarantine.
 
I would dearly love for it to be shown the ferret was not the attacker and
to be able to counter the bad press that has spread around the country.
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2229]