Publishing the weak spots around the Border, is not going to make the
Fish and Game Department sit up and take notice.  The inspection station
is run by the California Department of Agriculture!  The California Fish
and Game Department has nothing to do with Border Inspection.  Two
entirely different departments!  The only reason that the Department of
Agriculture asks about live animals is because they want to make sure
dogs are licensed and up to date on their rabies shots.  That's it.  They
do not activity search people's cars looking for a smuggled ferret.  The
Department of Agriculture is just doing their job, if you tell them you
have live ferrets, of course they will say you cannot bring them into
the state.  And yes, there are some people who don't know that their pet
ferret, hedge hog, or gerbil (Which they purchased legally in their
state) are not legal here in Calif.  Often these people are just passing
through and visiting California, taking the family (including pets) to
Disneyland, ect.  Somehow these people get in anyway, I know, I used to
work at Disneyland and the kennel employees told me they get in ferrets
along with an array of all kinds of animals.
 
The beagle dogs are trained to sniff for fruit.  People who are coming
in from back east are the ones who have their cars regularly inspected.
They might have bought fresh fruit, and just forgot to dispose of it.
Those dogs are trained to sniff out the cars for fruit.  The Department
of Agriculture has suffered major budget cuts.  They now have neither
the money nor the manpower to run all the stations.  Just 6 months ago
I crossed from Las Vegas bringing my baby ferret.  I didn't even bother
to avoid the check point because we had a California plate and I fully
expected to be waved through due to the large volume of traffic that goes
to and from Las Vegas, every single weekend.  The station was closed down
and no one was there.  It looked as if no one has worked there for a long
time.  I bought my other ferret into Needles from Arizona.  I avoided the
checkpoint completely, but only because it was further east than the pet
store was.  I have been to the Grand Canyon twice in the last three years
and was merely asked where I was coming from and waved through.  Arizona
and Nevada are both dry desert states and do not produce fresh fruit,
which is what they are looking for.  Both pet stores told me they sell
the vast majority of their weekly ferret shipments to people in
California.
 
There is nothing wrong with publishing the way to get around an
inspection station.  I can't imagine any Fish and Game person who would
A) decide to work for free; B) in a completely different department,
C) just so they could possibly confiscate a smuggled ferret.  That's just
crazy!  People here like me, who so desperately want ferrets as their
pet of choice or who are moving here and want to keep the ferrets they
already own, have a right to know how to bring them safely into the
state.
 
I think it's great to publicly slap the Fish and Game in the face
with the fact that they have no power to patrol the borders.  Border
inspection is beyond their measure of jurisdiction and is just not in
their job description.  The California Department of Fish and Game's job
is to oversee the fish and wildlife of California.  That the domestic
ferret is misclassified as a wild animal is a bone of contention with
them.  I once talked to a fish and Game person and she said yes, the law
is stupid and yes, ferrets are domestic animals.  But she also said that
her job was to enforce that law; weather she personally agreed with it
or not.
 
Pam
[Posted in FML issue 4569]