Ferrets are wild carnivores that are know to inflict mutilating injuries which frequently require multiple reconstructive surgeries to infants and small children.
Ferrets are capable of carrying and transmitting rabies.
No rabies vaccine is currently licensed for use in ferrets and brain testing is the only method of rabies diagnosis after a bite. The white-footed European ferret has, within the past several years, become a popular household pet. The number of severe traumatic injuries, primarily to infants and small children, has increased accordingly. More than forty reports of ferret bites which resulted in mutilated noses, lips, eyelids, fingers, toes, and in one case, the penis have been documented by Constantine in California and Lauer in Colorado.