I went to check out what the California Dept. of Health Services web pages say about rabies and ferrets. They apparently haven't updated their pages even to the strongly biased policies they came up with earlier in the year. From http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/dcdc/docs/rabcomp.htm#PT1A20, and http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/dcdc/docs/rabcomp.htm, dated Jan 1997, but marked "last updated feb. 2 1998". "There is very little data on rabies incubation, clinical presentation, and viral shedding in domestic animal species other than dogs and cats. The period of virus shedding in the saliva of infected wild or nondomestic animals prior to showing clinical signs of rabies is generally not known. Therefore, quarantine and observation of animal species other than dogs and cats that bite humans is not appropriate. Biting domestic, wild, or nondomestic animals other than dogs and cats should be euthanized and tested for rabies immediately." Todd P. Cromwell III, Dors and Dantes, WA State [Posted in FML issue 2484]