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Subject:
From:
"Scott Dudley" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 21 Jun 1988 14:40:50 -0400
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Fuji is still free.
WASHINGTON POST   21 JUNE 1988
 
OWNER SENT BACK TO JAIL AFTER FERRET SEARCH FAILS
"After a weekend of unsuccessful pleas for the return of her missing
ferret, Jennifer (ed. not christine) Au was returned to jail yesterday
on a contempt of court order and told she will stay there until the
animal is found.
  Prince William county authorities fear the ferret is rabid and may
have bitten a child earlier this month.  Rather than having the animal
tested for rabies, which involves decapitation the animal, Au said she
hid it and now doesn't know where it is.
  'This is extremely stupid and ridiculous, needless,' Au said yesterday,
speaking via intercom from behind a glass window at the jail, 'this has
gone too far.'
  At Au's court hearing yesterday morning, Thornton told her: 'It is now
the 20th of June and still no ferret.  You will go to jail today.  And
you will sit in the jail until whoever brings in the ferret.'
(some history deleted here)
  There is no federally approved rabies vaccine for ferrets - low-slung,
weasel-like animals, and their sale as pets is prohibited in some
jurisdictions including the District of Columbia and Baltimore.
  Since the incident, Austin has had four in a series of six rabies
innoculations, which doctors have said can have serious side effects,
given the boys age.  The next shot is saturday.
  The child's mother said she cannot understand "how anyone could have
a perspective so wrong as to put an animal before a child."  Told that
Au was in jail, she said "that's good.  I'm glad."
  "If it were in this court's power," judge Thornton told Au yesterday
"I would put you through the same thing this child is going through."
  Au told Thornton that contacts with ferret groups and others had
yielded no information on Fuji.
  Au's attorney said she would try to obtain bond for her client and
planned to appeal the contempt order.
  George Harmon, executive director of the Roanoke-based International
Ferret Association, said his organization was raising funds for Au's
defense.
  "If her ferret did not bite the child and she is absolutely certain
that her ferret did not bite the child, then I would go to jail rather
than turn it over," Harmon said.
  But Au now sees it differently.  Fuji "needs to be returned," she
said.  "It shouldn't have to die but [health officials] are going
ahead with this stupidity....I'm not happy at all.  I don't know
how I''m supposed to find the ferret if I am sitting here in jail.."
END OF ARTICLE
 
In order to locally counter ferret hysteria, I am seeking some in-
formation as follows:
No. of recorded cases of rabies in ferrets, dogs, and cats over
  whatever period of time available.  Sources for this information
  also solicited.
No. of recorded cases in humans over same time.
Ages at which kittens and puppies are usually innoculated for rabies.
Can rabies be transmitted by saliva from a rabid animal?
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0028]
                                                                          

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