>.... Said there was an article recently in his local paper about a ferret >that crawled under a door and broke into the baby's crib and proceeded to >chew on her face quite badly. I'm curious to know if this is actually a >recent article or if it was about that famous case that keeps ferrets >illegal in CA? ------------- >I am preparing an article ........ and will use statistical methods to >prove once and for all that ferrets are as safe (or more so) than any other >household pet. What I need are references on ferret (or dog/cat/snake, >etc) attacks. Thanks Bob Church -- IMO the too widely held misperception that ferrets are small biting creatures that carry rabies and suck the life out of babies is more than any other factor responsible for many of the laws against them. Anything that can be done to introduce people to these animals will be for the good. Course, it is also important to provide enough information to allow informed decisions to be made re ownership. As several have pointed out it is all too easy to bring one of these little people into your home while being unprepared for the responsibility and unable to provide the care. Just because ferrets are GREAT pets does not mean that everyone should own one. Tough message to get across. Re biting incidents, I went out to Tufts Veterinary School earlier in the year to look for info to use in support of Mass bill 295. We did a computer search and came up with tons of dog incidents involving serious or fatal injuries, but empty on ferrets. The only two that I am aware of are the 'Michelle Bowers' incident which was sensationalized by Rachael Lamb and HSUS in the five minute Good Morning America piece back in May of this year, and an incident that took place in January of 1991. I know little about the first other than what was broadcast, but have the police report on the second which is more often [mis]quoted. This incident happened in Hillsboro Oregon and involved the death of two month old Vivian Bettencourt. The ferret had been purchased in October of 1990 at the age of six weeks and was normally kept outside. It was fed once a day, at nighttime usually outside, in its cage. On the night of January 31st however it was cold and rainy so they brought the ferret inside. This was only the second time that they had done so for the night. Normally when 'inside', the ferret would go behind the stove and into the pan drawer where it had made a nest by shredding a newspaper. They would then block access to the stove by placing a board in front of the opening next to the refrigerator. The couple also had two dogs. A four month old puppy named 'Bearsis' that they had had for a week, and 'Jake who was sixteen months old. Both of these dogs slept in side with them on their bed. Now, according to the report it was also true that the 'ferret' had a problem with biting. The mother stated that "the ferret could sense when someone was afraid of it and it would attack. [also] it would bite the toes. She stated that [her SO] was the only one that could touch or handle the ferret. He fed it and cleaned its cage. If anyone else tried to touch it, it would bite them." So, what happened was that the baby was fed a bottle of formula around eleven PM that night, given her 'Nystatin' cold(?) medicine and put to sleep in a playpen under a warm blanket in the living room. The next morning they found the ferret under the blanket with the baby who had numerous bite marks about the face and neck, and had essentially bled to death from a severed carotid artery. Upon discovery, the father picked up the ferret and threw it into the kitchen and against the refrigerator, 911 was called and the rest is history. A young fuzzy who was kept in a cage outside in the Oregonian winter, fed once a day, never handled, allowed to have a blanket or even given the dignity of a name. A chronic biter, cold and hungry is allowed to come in contact with a baby in one of the only warm places in the house and the predictable happened. I know that any one of us could point to many circumstances in which Cats or Dogs would bite or scratch and ferrets would not. Try and take a dog's food away while it is eating, or surprise a sleeping cat. As far as temperament goes ferrets are not even in the same league. Even if they were, they don't have the physical ability for the most part to pull it off. They can't even find their way back home let alone hunt for prey. Or in the words of Rep Brad Jones who is sponsoring Mass bill 295 "It's only a small animal." Nuff said !! [Posted in FML issue 1364]