With regards to the issues of ferret "attacks" you know the term **really** bothers me. Think about it... if a ferret nips children they are accused of attacking. Early on at the shelter we started educating folks with children -- if the ferret is going to play with adults & children -- do not play any rougher with the ferret ( to adults) than you want it to play with the children. Why? Quite simple-- ferrets must learn acceptable play behaviors (training)-- if they respond in play to one or two individuals with a rougher play demeanor and are not reprimanded at an early age, then they accept that it is okay to play with <bold>all</bold> folks the same. We CANNOT expect a small creature to be able to distinguish an infant from an adult. They certainly are capable of learning -- however to expect them to rationalize is very presumptuous of humans. Generally a ferret may well go to a child as to an adult and grab hold with teeth-- not to bite but to invite playing. How many times do ferrets do this by grabbing fingers and trying to pull them under the couch? or grabbing tops of feet, socks, toes to get attention? These are not attacks, so why do we accept that if the ferret does this to a child it is an attack??? Beats me. As ferret folks we need to establish and understand the entire set of circumstances for each individual incident. Many attacks I hear about are from ferrets who wanted to play with a child / infant and humans did not properly supervise. Like the ferrets who always had mommy to play with and infant was held in a moms lap- the ferret stands on rear legs and decides-- "Hey, mom has a new toy I think I will steal it", where it then takes hold of an infant's leg ( arm, etc.) -- this was an actual rescued ferret at our shelter years ago-- who was lucky enough to get a chance to have a new home. Of course the ferret is just an animal, in the big world they don't count for much (not that I agree). It is far easier to blame an animal and take it's life than to shoulder responsibilities. This all being said, I urge everyone, before a ferret is again accused of attacking a child you know -- make sure that it is taught respective play techniques that allow it to play safely with children. If it is okay to nip in adult play times -- that ferret is not a good candidate for interaction with youngsters. Just my .02 on the mis- informed attacked issues of ferrets..... alicia for then many faces at Ferret Wise http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crassi/index.html our web catalog page at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crassi/funalia.html and at http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?cid=1890&mid=9535 Where Ferret Wise will receive $2.00 for every new person who signs on, and its totally free ( just takes a few minutes of your time) to help. Thank you from all the ferrets. [Posted in FML issue 2744]