Courtesy of The5thsoth

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/11/missouri.ferret.fingers/?iref=obnetwork#

Quote :

"Pet ferret eats seven fingers of baby boy (CNN) -- A 4-month-old baby boy from Grain Valley, Missouri, was in critical condition after a family pet ferret ate seven of the infant's fingers, and the boy's parents are under investigation for neglect and failure to obtain a $100 license for the exotic pet, police chief Aaron Ambrose told CNN Tuesday. Authorities are not releasing the names of the baby or his parents, Ambrose said. The mother was awakened at 2:30 a.m. Monday to her baby's crying, and she awakened her husband with screams upon discovering what happened, Ambrose said. The dad killed the pet by hurling it across the house, Ambrose said. The baby now has only two thumbs and a partial pinkie, the chief said. The ferret was about six months old, a police report said. "It's very unusual, there's no doubt about it," Ambrose said of the incident. Ambrose said he believed the ferret was a young animal recently acquired by the family. "We're trying to figure out if this thing had a crate or a cage, or was it running around the house," Ambrose said. "It jumped into the rocker thing that the baby was sleeping in and ate seven of its fingers." The parents said "they never heard the baby crying" until late into the ordeal, Ambrose said. "Who knows what's going on there. These are all things we're working on now -- where they were sleeping and where the baby was in conjunction with them." Upon seeing the ferret, the father "just grabbed it and threw it," Ambrose said. "It hit a dishwasher or cabinet or something like that." A necropsy is being performed on the ferret to examine its stomach contents and determine whether the animal had rabies, Ambrose said. A law enforcement colleague with ties to Shriners International, a philanthropy known for working with child burn victims, called Ambrose upon hearing the news and made him aware of a procedure in which some toes can be surgically removed and attached to the hands in place of fingers, Ambrose said. Ambrose said he wasn't aware Tuesday of whether the family was made aware of the Shriner's interest in baby's case. The baby is the care of Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, which is 25 miles west of Grain Valley, Ambrose said. "They can take the child's toes, like two per foot, and attach them to the hands and elongate them where they become like fingers," Ambrose said. "It's all free and it's through the Shriners. "It's nice to know there are options out there. He can somewhat of a normal life as far as using his hands," Ambrose said. In the recent past, animal control officers responded to complaints about the family's dogs, including a Rottweiler, Ambrose said. "They have had other animal issues with dogs for licensing and things like that," Ambrose said, adding that a dog license costs $10 or so in Grain Valley. "There was a concern back in the summer about barking dogs and...the way they were keeping the animals." In the wake of the most recent incident, ferret activists and rescuers from around the country have called Ambrose about the pet. "We've had them calling from all sorts of states asking about the ferret," Ambrose said. "Well, I guess if you collect dead ferrets, you can have one." Ambrose said parents should examine safety about pets. "If you have a baby or children, if you have animals, I would assume you want to educate yourself on the animal," Ambrose said. "Are they good around kids? Hopefully, people will take a general look at this and see what's the lesson.""

btw good job linking a Rottweiler to this family, making it look like a bad breed.

2/7/2011 11:47:41 AM

I was gonna make a comment on the Rottweiler too... I think they win responsible parents of the year award.
Note to self: don't leave a baby and a ferret unattended while I'm asleep in a different room.

2/7/2011 11:49:49 AM

Baby must have just eaten some doritos

2/7/2011 11:50:45 AM

oh i get, it, its because of the super bowl commercial

2/7/2011 11:51:21 AM

Cool your jets

2/7/2011 11:52:06 AM

nom nom nom

2/7/2011 11:52:34 AM

baby attempted the ol' "what did the 7 fingers say to the face" joke and ferret did not tolerate

2/7/2011 11:53:24 AM

are to blame

why the ad isn't all in English is beyond me

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 11:55 AM. Reason : .]

2/7/2011 11:54:40 AM

LadyBaby Fingers!

2/7/2011 11:56:52 AM

FERRETS ARE A DANGEROUS BREED, AND WE MUST BAN THEM

2/7/2011 11:56:56 AM

Quote :

"In the wake of the most recent incident, ferret activists and rescuers from around the country have called Ambrose about the pet."

Asking if the ferret is ok and not the kid? That seems fucked up.

2/7/2011 11:57:01 AM

mmmmmmm. thats good baby

2/7/2011 11:58:26 AM

first...i would just like to get to know you

2/7/2011 12:01:28 PM

Poor kid but I couldn't help but LOL at:

Quote :

""We've had them calling from all sorts of states asking about the ferret," Ambrose said. "Well, I guess if you collect dead ferrets, you can have one.""

2/7/2011 12:01:32 PM

hang ten baby!

2/7/2011 12:04:06 PM

D:

2/7/2011 12:05:10 PM

Man, I'd be so pissed at my parents when they finally tell me why my hands are so fucked up.


YOU MEAN YOU LET A FUCKING FERRET EA MY GOD DAMN FINGERS?

/disown

2/7/2011 12:06:46 PM

fuck ferrets. anyone who keeps a rodent as a pet has issues. that would be a total deal breaker for me in dating a girl too.

haha ferret activists.

2/7/2011 12:09:05 PM

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 12:16 PM. Reason : ^ferrets aren't rodents]

2/7/2011 12:15:08 PM

ferrets aren't rodents

2/7/2011 12:44:55 PM

at least he can still text when he gets old enough

2/7/2011 12:52:01 PM

Quote :

"The dad killed the pet by hurling it across the house, Ambrose said."

2/7/2011 12:53:42 PM

must have been a Pit Bull Ferret

2/7/2011 12:53:56 PM

At least it only ate the fingers

2/7/2011 1:08:08 PM

NEWSFLASH: FERRETS ARE CARNIVORES

2/7/2011 1:09:09 PM

Quote :

"must have been a Pit Bull Ferret"

lolololol

2/7/2011 2:16:31 PM

Ragged

since hes always wanted one

2/7/2011 2:18:38 PM

Why would you ever let this near your child?

2/7/2011 2:24:39 PM

OMG did they not have a monitor in the baby's room!?!?! how can you not hear your own baby crying? young animals and babies don't mix well.

2/7/2011 2:33:13 PM

2/7/2011 2:56:59 PM

I hate the way the media singles out ferrets every time they attack someone. And yes ferrets are sometimes treated in a fashion to make them aggressive, but that is the owners fault, not theirs. Put a ferret in a good home and they are amazing pets. You are making a blanket statement that ferrets are by nature and need to be banned, which is terrible wrong and hurtful to the breed. This is a cyclic thing that changes every several decades. Now it is the ferrets, before it was the hamsters, then before that it was the guinea pigs. Why don't you, instead of looking online for crap studies which are easily refuted, get out and get some real world experience. Go to the shelters. Go ask some vets. get to know ferrets.

2/7/2011 3:15:55 PM

ferrets have always creeped me out

why are they so creepy?

ferret people, where you at

2/7/2011 4:03:17 PM

get to know ferrets

2/7/2011 4:04:19 PM

they're all slinky and gross

do not want

2/7/2011 4:06:35 PM

the eating of fingers is gross

2/7/2011 4:07:07 PM

I love ferrets and would have one as a pet. But that doesn't mean I'd let it get anywhere near my sleeping infant.

I always hope when stories like this do come out that the parents were just the unlucky minority who did take the proper precautions (ferret was in a cage, child was in another room and something relatively unpredictable happened to lead to this) and wound up in this situation through a string of bad luck.

I know that is pretty much never the case, but at least the possibility keeps me from actively campaigning for eugenics.

2/7/2011 4:10:47 PM

Quote :

"they're all slinky and gross awesome"

ftfy

2/7/2011 4:12:33 PM

i like to watch them in their cages but something about their body shape really creeps me

i only knew one ferret IRL and it was a nice ferret. but albino so doubly creepy. red beady eyes. *shudder*

2/7/2011 4:14:21 PM

I hope they're in the minority, but would really feel worse for the string of bad luck parents than some careless people who were asking for something bad to happen. I guess I'd rather have them saying "shit, it really does happen" than "what have these hands wrought." Either way I really feel bad for the child, the perma hang-ten is going to make it hard to pick up women (unless he learns some dirty tricks) and even harder to jerk it. Hell of a combination.

2/7/2011 4:16:04 PM

i wonder how long it took to eat all those fingers off

it must have been super painful

2/7/2011 4:20:07 PM

I had one for a short period... easiest animal to train ever. It was litter trained within a matter of 1 day, and I could let it roam the house and it would go to its cage to use it. Some things people do have to get over with them:

- they can smell, but if you get a spayed female that has been descented, they are no worse than any other cage held animal

- they have like 7 days to every one of ours, so they will wake up and run around (be it in their wheel or all around the cage) several times during the night when you are trying to sleep

- like any other caged animal, you gotta keep the cage clean (else it will start to stink, which is why I think most people think cats and ferrets stink- it is really the liter box which needs to be emptied regularly).

but they are awesome pets, but will nibble on your toes and fingers if you let them (and a baby stood no chance of defending against it). horrible story, but like the pit bull story, there was definitely a lot of negligence that led to this, and the blame should not be put solely on the "scary dangerous animal"


ps: in my ferret book, it said it was good to occasionally give them beer- awesome!

2/7/2011 4:21:11 PM

they smell like shit!!

2/7/2011 4:22:45 PM

Exactly, I don't know any parents who have reached the "ignore the crying" stage by 4 months. I generally know good people though. Maybe they're super heavy sleepers and the baby monitor broke. That kid's probably going to have some emotional scarring.

2/7/2011 4:22:57 PM

i used to have a hamster and a guinea pig and i have cats so luckily the smell thing wouldn't necessarily turn me off...def gotta be clean with these kinda of pets!

their slinkiness creeps me haha. i mean they look cool but something about them...are ferrets related to mongooses? i think ferrets remind me of riki tiki tavi and that book scared me for a really long time.

know what rodent type animals i do like? prairie dogs!!! and meerkats!!! which have ferret like qualities... so me not liking ferrets doesn't make any sense at all haha.

oh and i'm totally not blaming the ferret. i'm just saying. they creep me. i don't get how this happened...carelessness or freak accident. but probably the former. ugh!

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 4:28 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2011 4:26:56 PM

followup imminent



[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 4:42 PM. Reason : ^rodents and weasels are not the same, b ]

2/7/2011 4:40:52 PM

I have fucking always hated ferrets

they're piece of shit animals

2/7/2011 5:06:18 PM

The only pets I like are the ones that are virtual, sit on my desktop and dance around in high heels, naked near the start button.

oh wait, wrong thread

2/7/2011 5:07:46 PM

I, too, LOLed at the collecting dead ferrets comment

2/7/2011 5:12:47 PM

I have said this before, if an animal harms my child, I can not assure TWW that I would not do the same.

2/7/2011 5:30:15 PM

"get to know ferrets"


i lol'd

2/7/2011 5:33:35 PM