Friday, January 14, 2011

Ferret attacks baby

This is well-known news in the Kansas City area, but I don't know if it's made its way to other parts of the country.  A pet ferret attacked a four-month-old baby that was in an infant rocker and chewed off seven fingers, leaving the baby with two thumbs and part of one finger.  You can find that report HERE.  
The child's mother was supposedly in the same room with the baby, sleeping.  
What we're all wondering is how on earth did the ferret eat that many fingers so fast?  Because you know that baby would have screamed bloody murder the first time he was bitten.  
Neighbors said the ferret had bitten the baby before.  The family had reportedly considered having the ferret's teeth removed to prevent it from biting again, and had also considered re-homing it.
A local veterinary said ferrets should not be allowed to run free when there are children around.  
According to the American Pediatric Association, this is not necessarily an isolated instance.  It's happened in other places before.  This article explains that ferrets seem to be attracted to babies, perhaps because of the smell of milk.  
I'll leave it to you to decide whether ferrets should be allowed to roam free around babies, and whether a ferret would have time to devour seven of a baby's fingers before the mother sleeping in the same room could wake up and save the baby.  

6 comments:

  1. That's a bunch of bull!!! That baby would still be screaming from the pain. That is terrible.No one could have ignored the babies painful cry's. As for the ferret,its still a wild animal and the mother should be punished for leaving it loose in the house!

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  2. For the life of me I don't understand how any of it could happen...that is just plain craziness.

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  3. We have had many ferrets over the years. Most of them were as domestic as a cat and harmless as any animal I had ever been around. One, however, was very much a wild animal. It killed chickens, chicks, and pet hamsters. It could escape any cage it was put in. My thoughts are that not all ferrets can be trusted and that I don't think the mother was anywhere near when this happened. We never seen to get the whole story.

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  4. Makes me sick. Yes it was on our news yesterday. Any kind of animal should not have access to a baby without a grown-up present. My opinion.

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  5. OK, I was keeping quiet, but I'm an opinionated type person, so here goes: That ferret should NOT have been loose with a baby in the house. When Kameron is here (and she's TWO!) Hawkeye (a domesticated dog) is NOT unattended. He's NEVER threatened to harm a kid, but why would I want her to be the first?

    The mom was either not home, or passed out stoned or drunk. No WAY would the cry of a child in pain not wake up a normal mother.

    In the same room? I don't THINK so. I am so angry about this that I've been spouting off for days. I hope that the true story is revealed. This is bad parenting, and this little baby should be placed in a safer household.

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  6. She sure was a sound sleeper sleeping through all that screaming the baby must have done. Ferret be gone.Helen

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