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]