This is in response to the note in the July 30/Aug 1 FML entitled "The HORRORS of Tribessen." We would first of all like to express our sincerest sympathies to the family of Halie. However, the note in yesterday's FML represents an overreactive attitude that is inconsitent with the cause of ferrets. Although it certainly may be true that there is a connection between the death of this ferret and the antibiotic used to treat it, it is by no means a certainty. It is hysterical reactions to such incidents that cause more harm to the reputation of ferret owners then any good that will ever come from such reactions. If you truly want to help ferrets that may be allergic, then be proactive about reporting such incidences (calmly) to the proper regulatory agencies involved. Drug companies that have adverse reactions reported to them are required by law to report them to appropriate regulatory agencies and you should encourage your vet to do the same. To put Halie's case in perspective we should note that any drug may have side effects. When drugs are approved for use in humans or animals that process involves a weighing of the positive (i.e. curative) potential of the substance versus its potential for harm. Nearly all drugs have side effects, some quite severe. In the case of drugs that are intended to treat severe life-threatening conditons (e.g. AIDS, cancer) the level of side effects tolerated to produce any positive effects is often quite high. In cases where the disease is almost always fatal, such risks are obviously acceptable. No drug can be judged based on one adverse reaction, no matter how severe. That is why regulatory agencies closely monitor adverse reactions to drugs and other chemicals. Implicit in the risk vs. benefit question in evaluating the safety of a drug is the possibility that one particular genotype (of animal or human) may have particular sensitivity to the drug. In some cases, such sensitivity may be severe and relatively common. For example, hundreds of thousands of people are allergic to penicillin, many risk anaphylactic shock and death if they take this common antibiotic; however, noone has suggested banning penicillin because it is a drug that has in fact saved millions of lives. This does not lessen or cheapen the life of those persons that have been lost to reactions, such occurences are always tragic and should always be avoided whenever possible. If you attack a drug product, you should also consider what good it may do for the animals/people you care about dearly. If only one cure exists for the disease, it might be worth the risk, and by condemning it on the basis of one bad incident, you may be condemning dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of animals to an untimely end. Additionally, the attitude that anecdotal information such as Halie's story is credible enough to ban a product is inconsistent with the history of the movement to protect ferrets. The note "HORRERS of Tribessen" is no different than the inflammatory rhetoric that organizations such as California Fish and Game and the HSUS have used to try to perpetuate an illegal ban on ferrets. Ferret lovers should strive to refrain from the use of such propagandizing scare tactics. It just makes us look irrational and it brings us down to the level of the idiots we have been fighting for so long. -Kathleen and Mitch Cheeseman Dancing Bottom Ferrets [Posted in FML issue 1273]