THE ATTACK BY A FERRET ON A CHILD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1443, 29 December 1886, Page 3

THE ATTACK BY A FERRET ON A CHILD.

Tha following additional particulars concerning the attack on a child by a ferret are given by the Herbert c irrespondent of the North Otago Times ;—“ It appears that In the afieruoon Mrs D bbs was busied in the front ro •to of her house with ordinary domestic dut'es, while her baby, a fin? Leahby gt’l of eaven months old, with beaut ful fane b'ue eyes, lay On a rug on the fl -or beside her. There were no other children in the room, and the mother, having occaskn to go out to the clothes-line, eft the buby ijing oa the floor She had hardiy gone 10 yards from the door when the was alarmed at hearing the cbi ! d screaming, and on hastening back to the room a horrible ■lgb •Joresented itse’f 'o her gize. A ferret be'onging to Mr D bbs had ei c -ped from its cage and had auseke ' the child. The ferocious brute, which bad a litter about three weeks old, was tearing with teeth and claws at the right eye of the unfortunate infant, whose face was streaming with blood. M a Dobbs drove the animal off and carried the victim to Dr JLevingc, who alleviated the little sufferer’s pain, but pronounced tha cya hopeleasely destroyed On inspecting the ferret’s case, which is some 10 yards from the h use, it was found that the d or of the cage had cot been properly closed, or had been tampered with by some of the ch'kren ; and it is surmised that the animal had escaped early in the afternoon and had been concealed in the ro m before Mrs Dobbs left it, as she was not abrent from her child more than three minutes. The brute has been caught and, together with the whole of its litter, 1 'll d." Writing on the above subjsct, tha New Zealand Times says :—Such a frightful recurrence, which is not the first instance id New Zealand of children bein' injured by ferrets, tends to suggest uncomfortable reflections as to the future possibilities of our wholesale introduction of these fierce and bloodthbs y little anims’s They may assist in checkin.? the increase of the dreaded rabbit, but if they take it Into their heads to devote iheir energies also to checking the natural Increase of population by preying upon children, the bereaved parents will begin to think that the remedy may be worse than the disease. Sinister reports #re also current of lambs becoming the recipients of those tender attentions on the part of the ferrets which weredes’gncd t o be devoted sole y tobunuy, and it is said ;l:at tbe wicked ferret does not disdain an occasional flirtation wi’h domestic poultry. We fear there Is trouble brewing over this ferret question 4n American paper long ago predicted that ferrets would soon become so great akiuisanco in New Zealand "that we should have to import white ants o extirpate the ferrets. It begins to look like It.