Just a quick summary on where I think we are at the end of the week.
 
I haven't been able to get a copy of DOC's declaration on Ferrets yet (as
opposed to their press release), however from second hand discussions I
have had, it may not be as bad as originally thought.
 
My current understanding is that:
 
* The Biosecurity Amendment Bill will give declarations under the
  Biosecurity Act precedence over the Wildlife Act.
 
* The Biosecurity Amendment Bill has already passed through the select
  committee stage, which means that there will be no opportunity for us
  to make a submission to the select committee before it becomes law.
 
* DOC have declared ferrets to be an unwanted organism under the
  Biosecurity Act.  At the moment this declaration cannot be enforced
  because of a conflict with the Wildlife Act.  Once the Biosecurity
  Amendment Bill comes into force, this declaration will effectively ban
  the breeding, sale and distribution of ferrets.  For the majority of
  people this won't directly affect them - because the only individuals
  who were allowed to breed or sell ferrets were licensed owners anyway.
  The real change is that licensed breeders will only be allowed to sell
  their ferrets overseas, and anyone wanting a ferret will be forced to
  look to shelters, or back-yard breeders.
 
The net effect of this is that it will reverse the achievements that
Ferret PAWS has made over the past 3.5 years.  During that time we have
put considerable effort into:
 
* encouraging people to buy ferrets from licensed breeders who desexed
  their ferrets,
 
* getting owners to have their ferrets desexed if they weren't already
  done, and
 
* closing down illegal back-yard breeders.
 
We have had a lot of success towards all three of these objectives, at
least in Auckland where we have been most active.  With licensed breeders
being prevented from supplying ferrets to New Zealanders, however,
back-yard breeders are likely to resurface, and many owners might choose
not to desex their ferrets so that they can be assured of obtaining
replacements for their pets.  It is hard to see how this contributes
towards the objectives of the environmental movement - however I would
expect that in five years or so when the impact of this has become readily
apparent, they will draw the conclusion that we need even more restrictive
laws - and won't blame themselves for bringing in unworkable ones!
 
If my understanding is correct, the new rules probably won't stop us from
running a ferret shelter.  It will, however, be more difficult because:
 
* A larger proportion of ferrets coming into the shelter will be entire,
  and will need to be desexed at the Society's expense, and
 
* We won't be able to charge an adoption fee for the ferrets (while we
  currently call this a donation, I suspect that the law will still
  consider what we do to be selling).
 
It is likely therefore, that the shelter - which currently breaks even
over the longer term - will start costing a significant amount of money to
operate in the future.  This will create some challenges for the Society,
as our only sources of funding are Membership Fees, and Fundraising.
 
So where to from here?
 
Legal action to try and overturn the DOC declaration would be
prohibitively expensive.  As an Incorporated Society we are not entitled
to legal aid, however if an individual ferret owner was to take legal
action, they might be eligible for this.
 
By communicating with politicians we might be able to convince them to
exclude the offending clause (clause 4) from the Biosecurity Amendment
Bill on the basis that the Minister deliberately delayed announcing the
impact of this clause until after submissions to the select committee
had closed, and we therefore lost our opportunity to make a submission on
this matter.
 
I still need to get my hands on a couple of more documents before being
able to recommend a path ahead.
 
The status of the current Minister of Conservation is something of a wild
card in this, as the pressure for her to resign over the Alliance split
may complicate the issue (as might an early election if it comes to that).
 
For those who want more information on the issues relating to ferrets in
New Zealand, there is a copy of the submission that Ferret PAWS put up
for the 1999 Public Discussion Document at
www.geocities.com/chessum_family/submission.
(But you will need MS Word to read it).  This will be transferred to the
Ferret PAWS web-site in due course.
 
Best Regards
 
John Chessum
Legal Affairs Officer
Ferret PAWS (NZ) Inc
[Posted in FML issue 3743]