Everyone-- This was in my mailbox this morning: Originator: VDANESE, To: DTHOMASON Debra, Haven't read anything on the McDowell case lately. Any news? Did e tv shows take interest in the story? Did the Rutagrs info pan out? You're our only link to what's going on and I wish there was something I could do. If you get a chance, please let me know if you've heard anything. Ann _________________________________________________________ Ann (and others!)-- I know, and I'm sorry I haven't written more about my last couple of phone calls to Rita. Yes, I gave her the Rutgers info the day I got it, but I haven't talked to her since I gave it to her. She was busy writing up a carefully detailed account of the whole mess to send to TV shows, newpapers, ferret groups, lawyers, etc., as well as to present to the Kansas Legislature during hearings they were holding on a proposal to have the ferret recognized as a domestic animal across the board. In case you contribute to any fund for rabies shed period studies, you should know that the lady who heads up the Kansas State study testified *AGAINST* ferrets! All she cares about the ferret and the ferret loving public is her professional credentials and $$$$$!! I'll send my money to the Morris Foundation and mark it for ferret rabies shed studies, but specifically NOT the Kansas State study! Any study done with that woman's biases as a point of view is likely to be less than what we want! As far as I know, there are no nibbles from other TV shows yet. I'm going to call one of our local stations Monday to see if I can get info on a syndicated show that they carry called The Crusaders. They do "people done wrong" shows and make an effort to try to correct the wrongs too, so they seem a likely choice. I'll be talking to Rita again this week, so I'll let you know if anything good has come up since I last spoke to her. As for Mike's job, he went through with his grievance process, and basically was told the same garbage. I believe (if I understood correctly) that the Sheriff didn't even show for the grievance hearing!! All this in spite of the fact that there is a Kansas law prohibiting public officials from saying or putting in records anything that harms, discredits, or ridicules an employee. The Sheriff and Under-sheriff had been quoted by more than one Kansas newspaper as saying that Mike McDowell lied about not knowing where the ferrets were, the actual words used saying something like, "Sure, he's telling the truth, and I see pink pigs flying in my parking lot...." Similar comments appear in the dismissal paperwork. However, Mike is getting unemployment benefits now, so at least that will help them a bit monetarily, though it can't get their house back or put their lives back together. On the subject of getting their case handled, their lawyer dropped them. He said their case was "... too political." So they are once again without lawyer. They finally got someone from the ACLU to speak to them about their case, but were told that the ACLU wasn't interested in their case. ACLU says that yes, their civil and Constitutional rights have been violated, but the ACLU is only interested in previously untried legal tenets, and theirs isn't unique. I did provide them the Rutgers info, but as I said, haven't heard from them since. For those of you who don't have this info: Rutgers University Newark School of Law S.I. Neuhause Center for Law and Justice Animal Rights Center 15 Washington St., Rm. 530 Newark, NJ 07102 Phone #: (201) 648-5989 Fax# : (201) 648-1040 The ridiculous positions held by the State of Kansas continue to appear. The Health Department sent Rita a bill for $1500 dollars for the rabies shots supposedly given to the alleged bite victim and gave her a deadline to pay it. Rita, armed with the "victim's" name (she found it on a tag he filled out on one of their appliances!) called KP&L and pitched a fit because she'd been told by them that they would pay the bill for the shots and she shouldn't be held liable for them. The official she spoke with went so far as to offer her $1500 to pay the bill with, but she didn't take it because her lawyer had told her that if she were ever offered money in connection with this case, that someone was admitting she and her ferret were not guilty, so she wanted to consult the lawyer first. When I last talked to her, Rita had two days left to pay the bill, so I'll have to ask after that too. Also of interest is that Rita was told by the KP&L official that the worker started the rabies shots on the day that the McDowells went to court, a month after he was bitten! Yet the Health Department said he MUST start the shots within ten days of the bite! So the tale drags on. The McDowells will shortly be out of a home, the state continues to persecute them, and nothing is resolved. The only decent thing that has happened is that they have another ferret now. Someone who worked with Rita knew about the garbage that has happened to them and gave her his ferret when he was moving and was no longer able to keep it. So they have a furry to hug, but that's about it. I'll write more after I talk to Rita next. Debra in Ft. Worth, TX [Posted in FML issue 0774]