Thursday 17 April 2008

Hamster kills man


A woman is suing a pet shop chain after her husband died of a hamster virus.

Nancy Magee, from the US, claims PetSmart Inc should have warned customers the rodents carry lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a viral infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Two other people died of the virus in 2005 after receiving infected organs from the same woman as her husband, Thomas, 54.

Via Metro

12 comments:

  1. Richard Gere doesn't know how lucky he is to be alive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't find the story on the linked website, but if the man underwent an organ transplant and received an infected organ, he was probably given drugs to suppress his immune system, and . . .
    I can't see how the pet shop is culpable. But I personally don't think pet shops should be allowed to sell live animals (only pet supplies alright), so SIC 'EM

    ReplyDelete
  3. MM...don't look now, there's one right behind you nibbling on your cape.

    Ist, was it Richard Gere who put the hamster up his snickers factory? I wish he had tried this one.

    John, I've now linked it to the article. He was very unlucky to die from something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's that mad hamster disease...

    ReplyDelete
  5. xco, you may be right, mad hamster disease or HSE as the vets like to call it. All hamsters in a 10 mile radius will have to be slaughtered.

    ReplyDelete
  6. They'll slaughter each other if you let them--
    /personal experience

    ReplyDelete
  7. John, I sense you have witnessed hamster slaughter first-hand and lived to tell the tale.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wild and free hamsters may behave differently from caged hamsters, but it was murder and mayhem in my menagerie.

    My mother was badly bitten by one of my hamsters, and she died forty-five years later

    ReplyDelete
  9. Crikey! That's a case for Quincy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. i was bitten by a hamster too about 10 years ago

    guess i have about 15 more years to live...

    ReplyDelete