The post on that poor starving ferret made was so upsetting. Why was the ferret caged into that doghouse? How long had it been there without food and water? I'm so sorry this poor little one died because of ignorance. Ignorance is deadly. First off, once your post-exposure treatment was started, the ferret should have been quarantined for 10 days. In the rabies shedding studies, the test ferrets showed symptoms within that time period. We had a similar incident with a cat here in our area. The cat was a stray and bit someone but the people in the area didn't want the cat to be killed and so the cat was quarantined for 10 days. The compendium does read that strays should be killed and tested so that may be why the health official said the ferret should be killed. Bottom line is though, if you claimed the ferret and didn't want it to be killed, it should have been quarantined. I've been bitten by animals of unknown history several times and one moderately severe bite was on the side of my neck. I waited out the quarantine period without reporting the incident or taking post-exposure treatment. My fear was that the local authorities would kill the dog so I chose not to report it. I fully knew the risks at the time but I also knew that I couldn't handle having an innocent animal killed. This may be viewed as risky by some, but it was my decision to make and I made the one I could live with. I've been bitten by ferrets that were abuse, auction and breeder rescues. Never once did I fear rabies because the ferrets were reacting normally (and yes we've found wounds on some of them). Fear, hunger, pain can cause any animal to react violently, even humans. Too many ferrets have needlessly been killed because of the rabies issue. I'm sorry for that little one that experienced something so terrible, possibly inflicted by humans, to make him fear humans so strongly and also for his death by humans. sigh. I'm not insensitive to the issue of the biting and fear of rabies, but once the shots were started, the ferret should have been quarantined and had it not shown symptoms in the 10 day quarantine period, there would have been no need to kill this poor ferret. As a side note, we were called out to rescue a baby ferret found in a barn. The ferret turned out to be a weasel. To protect the animal, we made sure it was not able to bite anyone (it didn't even attempt to). In any rescue, it is a good idea to not put yourself or anyone else in a situation where they may get bitten. A hard lesson to be learned in this situation. Hugs to all. tle Troy Lynn Eckart Ferret Family Services http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/ Please sign up to support our charity http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?cid=46&mid=58395 [Posted in FML issue 2887]