Hi everybody: I spoke on the telephone to Mike and Rita McDowell, on christmas. I personnally can't believe what the Kansas Judicial system is doing to these poor people. They told me that what is bothering them the most is that the judge that is in charge of the case and the prosecutor won't even listen to what they have to say, or even view any documents on ferret-rabies studies that they have. They wanted to show the judge the European study on rabies in ferrets, but the judge wouldn't allow it as evidence stating that the study wasn't done in the good ol'e US of A. But even higher courts use the same European organizations study of rabies in dogs and cats as gospel. Sounds like a good old case of double standards. Mrs. McDowell feels that it goes deeper than just the judicial system though , and I concurr with her whole heartedly. We both feel that some lobbying has been done by some of the large corporations that do testing on animals, after-all, when animal rights activists got involved with the testings done on dogs and cats, they literaly got the whole country behind them and forced them to stop. Then the activists got involved with the testing being done on lab. rats and mice, and low and behold, the testing on the rodents has almost ceased to exist. So where does that leave the big companys, why using wild animals like ferrets . Yeah you heard right wild animals. Because that is what a ferret is labeld as, a wild animal. I think that what we all need to do is get involved and help to get the label changed. I know that, I would feel alot safer about my baby, if she had the label of domestic animal. In Kansas did you know that if the powers that be feel that your " wild animal ", would put people at some sort of risk ( and they don't have to tell you what kind of risk ), they can come into your home or business and take the animal to be destroyed, yes I said destroyed, not tested on but DESTROYED. Believe it or not, all we have to do is write letters to people. Write to your congressman, senator, representative, write to the Kansas state senate . I'm preparing an article right now for our local paper here in Branson and I am going to copy it and send it to the local Springfield paper also. What the McDowells need is support from us, and also help, let's show the McDowells , the state of Kansas and anybody else we can think of , Just how much we love our babys!!! If you would like to you can call the McDowells and tell them you care, there number is ( 913 ) 889-7180 or you can write them at ; Mike and Rita McDowell 109 West 4th st. Onaga, Ks. 66521 When I spoke to them on christmas night, the still haven't got an attorney. They spoke to the ACLU , but were recieved by a grouchy secretary and told that they couldn't do anything about the case, gee... I didn't know that the ACLU was hiring attorneys as secretarys now-a-days. Please get involved, I don't want my baby to be next on the chopping block and I am sure that you don't want yours to be next either. Sorry that I stood up on the soap box, but I feel that this is an important issue we need to do something about. -- ***** Paul 'Phantom Fisherman' Williams - [log in to unmask] ***** "Yankee by Birth --- Rebel by Choice" ## JOIN THE BRANSON CHAT MAILINGLIST - INFORMATION ABOUT BRANSON MISSOURI ## Subscriptions to: [log in to unmask] - Subject: subscribe CURRENTLY SEEKING A NET-HOST CLOSER TO S.W. MISSOURI - EMAIL ME PLEASE [Posted in FML issue 0681]