Bad new and good news: Your faxes had an effect: Lake County Prosecutors office was willing to go with a 30 day quarantine period, even though the ferret is NOT vaccinated. There are several animal lovers there, and they try their best to avoid unnecessary testing. Unfortunately, the West Virginia victim is pressing the issue and the county will honor the victim's request for immediate kill and test. By the way, the Lake Co health dept official, Mr. Ed Benning, was less amiable. He apparently never had anyone say "No" to him before and he was extremely pissed and showed it. As of this morning, the ferret was in the owner's possession, but I don't have a current status. In Elyria, things didn't look too good initially. Yesterday the owner received a registered letter from the Lorain County Health department requiring her to turn over the ferret Bevis. (According to our attorney, health departments can always declare a public health emergency and do what they want, getting some judge to ok it after the fact.) But our attorney used the Lake County position and the fact that Bevis was vaccinated last October to get them to agree to a 30 day quarantine if the victim agrees. (Also, I had a phone conversation with the very same health official during the Kodo incident in which he told me quarantines may be acceptable for vaccinated ferrets.) At this time Bevis has a reprieve. This evening we will confer on how to approach the victim (next door neighbor, elderly gentleman, not an animal lover) to get him to agree to the quarantine. We do not yet know where a quarantine would take place. Our thanks to you all for your support and assistance. Special thanks to our attorney, Lisa Waltz, who is tackling these issues with great enthusiasm. Linda Iroff North Coast Ferret Shelter http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html [Posted in FML issue 2041]