FYI - here is the NYC Friends of Ferrets letter to HSUS executive director Paul Irwin in response to receiving their statement on pet ferrets. Members of the FML are urged to keep the communications to HSUS up until they revise their position. June 19, 1995 Mr. Irwin: On June 1, 1995, we wrote to you regarding the remarks made by Rachel Lamb on CBS This Morning regarding pet ferrets which are quite disturbing as they raise issues of the comparative accuracy of HSUS bite data and the overt political activism on the part of HSUS which affect pet owners' rights. To this date we have not received a response to our letter, and despite several calls to your office, you have not had the courtesy to take or return our calls. This conduct is simply unacceptable and this issue will not go away. There are millions of ferret owners across this country, many of whom are organized in clubs and in touch with each other via newsletters and computer on-line services, including the Internet, and some, like us, who are involved in legal action on behalf of ferret owners. I have spoken briefly to Rachel Lamb, and I have also mailed her data on ferret bites which support the relative safety of keeping pet ferrets as compared to dogs. (I find it ironic that HSUS had teamed up this month with the Postal service to raise awareness of dog bite safety!) We look forward to a continuing dialogue with her; however, I must express my reservations as to her impartiality in view of learning that Ms. Lamb is a former employee of the California Dept. of Health Services, which is known for disseminating misleading and sometimes false data on pet ferrets. We have not heard back from her as of this date. I received the October 1992 HSUS position paper on pet ferrets from Ms. Lamb, and we have some serious objections to some of the language of this document, as we shall discuss below. In the second paragraph, captioned "Rabies," it is inaccurate to state that all public health officials universally recommend that ferrets who bite should be killed and tested for rabies. Many local public authorities have recognized that a quarantine period is as appropriate for ferrets as it is for dogs and cats (it is my understanding that just this month the state legislature of New Hampshire adopted an official quarantine policy), particularly in view that most pet ferrets are household animals which have no exposure to the rabies vectors only found out of doors. To kill and test an animal which has no possibility of having rabies merely constitutes cruelty to animals -- and should be inconsistent with the HSUS charter of protecting animals. The only justified recommendation for rabies testing should be for any ferret suspected of rabies, i.e., an animal which has had known exposure to a rabies vector or has been of unknown origin and unvaccinated, if the circumstances deem it necessary. But the actual suspicion of rabies infection must be established to warrant such an action. I have two ferrets for over five years and I can tell you with a 100% certainty that neither is carrying rabies. Should my animals be sacrificed if one of them nips a human who perhaps squeezes them to hard? It's absolutely preposterous. And I can tell you I would not allow it under any circumstances no matter what well-meaning but misguided public health authorities demand. The HSUS statement on rabies is misleading and does not further the best welfare of innocent animals. In the fourth paragraph, captioned "Behavior," you first erroneously make reference to "nocturnal habits." Ferrets are not nocturnal. Period. Mine sleep through the night as well as I do. We find this reference inexcusably sloppy and wonder how it got in there to begin with. Ferrets are rarely "difficult to contain and control," as you go on to state -- no more so than some dogs and cats. And no "close supervision" is required for most ferrets, as you caution -- my animals have had run of the house for their entire lives and are never confined to a cage. This sort of hyperbole belies an anti-ferret bias on the part of the author of this document. What you mean to say is ferrets have characteristics which need to be understood before buying one to protect both the ferret's and the owner's welfare. Education should be stressed over scare tactics. Your paragraph captioned "Summary" begins with a negative opinion on the suitability of pet ferrets for "most people," which we find pompous and didactic. Again, nowhere is education mentioned if someone chooses -- as a free American -- to own a pet ferret. This three-year-old statement needs to be revised now. We would be happy to work with you in drafting new language or providing data. But we will not silently sit by as this document is distributed by the HSUS and Ms. Lamb carries on her public campaign of misinformation and political activism. We require a response to these criticisms. As a public institution issuing public statements, we believe you are obliged to respond. If you do not choose to open a dialogue, then one can only assume that you operate in bad faith, and we will take it from there. Very truly yours, Gary Kaskel co-founder, NYC Friends of Ferrets [Posted in FML issue 1231]