All, Last Saturday in Concord, NH three 8-week old ferret kits were killed needlessly as the result of ignorance, and state policy. A woman stuck her hand in a ferret cage and had her little finger bit by one of the MF-bred kits. "I had to yonk my finger out of its mouth. My finger was throbbing. It was bleeding. [The photos show what looks like a scratch.] It had broken the skin in two places." The woman lamented. As you know, at 8 weeks the kits are first learning about humans and still haven't been taught that human skin is not a tough as ferret skin. Now they never will learn about that or any ofthe other pleasures of life. These kits were isolsated from all possible exposure to any other animals unti lthey were put on the truck and shiped to the pet store. The mothers had been innoculated and passed on the immunity to the kits. There was NO-WAY for those kits to have rabies. There was no reason to kill them. The woman started the series of rabies shots. The NH State Vet, Clifford McGinnis is quoted as saying, " that each situation of animal bites has to be considered individually to determine the risk. "It would take a pretty brave MD to say 'I don't think there's any risk here.'" Last week a young female ferret was killed after a middle-school child jerked her hand out of the ferret's mouth and scratched her finger. The ferret had been innoculated and had never been outside unsupervised. The State public Health Department ordered the ferret killed and tested. A young child was nipped on the finger at another pet store by one of some 40 ferrets in a large cage. The Public Health officer who was called in ordered all 40 kits destroyed; the petstore owner refused and saved them. If this makes you as angry as it does me, please write and let these State Officials know that killing young kits and vaccinated ferrets is entirely unnecessary. A polite letter letting NH know that the eyes of the world ore on them and their uninformed policies. [Polite letters get more action than flames, please.] The newspaper address is: Concord Monitor - Mike Pride P.O. Box 1177 Concord, NH 03302-1177 Attn: Letters to the Editor The Public Health Dept address is: H. H. Bird, MD, Commissioner Department of Public Health and Human Services 6 Hazen Drive Concord, NH 03301-6527 also be sure to send a cc to: Katie Dunn, RN, BS, Program Chief Communicable Disease Epiidemiology Program (same address) Thank you. Dick Bossart [Posted in FML issue 0861]