Several people have had concerns that Warm Fuzzy was being singled out by the SVFC. This is not the case. Several months ago, Warm Fuzzy had active Aluetians disease in their shelter after accepting ferrets from a irresponsible source. Of course they had absolutely no idea that these turn-ins were infected with Aluetians at the time they accepted them. A few days ago, SVFC and LIFE became aware of this situation. They were asked to not bring ferrets to the SVFC show. They were NOT singled out. A breeder voluntarily elected to stay home, and another breeder was flat out told that they were not welcome, period. Warm Fuzzy was never told they could not come, simply asked not to bring ferrets. When they said that if they couldn't bring ferrets that they wouldn't come, the organizers of the show offered to send their table money back if they wanted. Warm Fuzzy then said that they would be there, without ferrets. When this situation was brought to my attention several days before the show, I did not jump to conclusions or reactions. I didn't know much about Aluetians disease, so I called my vet, and asked him to reasearch it. He contacted a couple of other well reknowned vets in the ferret community, as well as researching it in several ferret medical books and VIN. The information that he received told him that Aluetians is transmitted via aerosal and direct contact with feces and saliva; it can take 80-120 days for antibodies to occur and be readable in titer tests; and that testing at 30 days post exposure and then again at 120 days post exposure is recommended. He also said not much is known about how long a ferret remains a carrier post-exposure. After reviewing this data, and the situation, he strongly urged that anyone who had seen cases of active and symptomatic Aluetians in their homes/shelters should defer from bringing ferrets exposed to this disease to the show. Had the professional medical opinion been that there was no risk, no action would have been taken. But this is not the case, and when facing an overwhelming amount of medical evidence, the most responsible thing that could be done was. Although there were people threatening a boycott of the show if the Hertzogs brought ferrets, this was not the strongest motivating factor in our request to them. Rather, the preponderance of strong clinical evidence regarding potential transmission of a fatal disease was the driving factor. Taking this expert advice, BethAnn Lee and I acted. We wrote a very honest letter and handed it out before people even entered the show hall. We never mentioned anyone by name in this letter. We asked several people to either not attend or not bring ferrets who had been exposed. Regretfully the Warm Fuzzy people were part of that demographic group. As I repeatedly told Shirley yesterday, we have no malice against Shirley and Clarence. This could have happened to anyone, and they are not alone in the affected group of people. When I asked Shirley "What can I do to make you happy? What can I do for you?", she was unable to give me a response. We feel terrible that this happened to them and the others affected, however, we have an overriding responsibility to the entire community to take any and all reasonable precautions. Of course any time that ferrets are taken into public, especially to a show, there is risk involved. But, responsible show organziers take steps to minimize these risks, and this is what was done in theis case. No one in LIFE or SVFC has a personal vendetta against the Hertzog's or Warm Fuzzy. In fact it is quite the opposite. This was explained repeatedly to Shirley. We feel very badly that she is in the situation that she is in, however we also feel a responsibility to the other ferrets and their owners who were going to be at the show to take reasonable steps to protect them. Hopefully, any and all questions regarding the health of their ferrets as well as the ferrets of the others affected will be resolved over time. Anne Ryan President, LIFE [Posted in FML issue 2866]