Lisette,

No, it's not silly. If the law enforcement thinks you don't deserve
them back, you can get fined, and you can never see them again because
they then tell the rescues to never contact you.

Of course that means that most ferrets are then protected from bad
situations, but what if the cops and you disagree on what is a bad
situation? What if you suddenly got in a bad situation and wanted your
friends to adopt your ferret, but maybe the cops ended up finding out
about your ferrets, and they took them? You never see them again.

Your neighbors, if they don't like you, can make up things and report
you, and lie about your ferrets causing problems. Guess what? They
have to take them, and since you were a "bad ferret owner," you never
see them again.

There are lots of bad situations that can happen.

Also if they decide the ferret is sick or too old, they can decide
to euthanize right there. What if you had a pathetic looking adrenal
ferret, and the shelter didn't realize what it was? Even though most of
the shelters/humane societies and rescues know what ferrets are, a lot
of them have never seen them. They don't know what shots they get, what
diseases they get, or what they are related to.

I heard from someone recently that the Fish and Game used to euthanize
all the time. Before that, it was throwing them in a furnace (this was
a long time ago). Of course that may have been a line to scare people,
but I can only imagine. You should see and hear the things people think
about ferrets in California. It's insane.

Think about it this way. I've never heard of a cop looking the other
way when people were caught with ferrets. I've heard of cops looking
the other way for lots of other things. Apparently ferrets isn't one
of them. Imagine the stress of having to take a ferret with you to the
vet, only to get in a car accident. The ferret is taken and you end up
having to track her down, if they don't euthanize first.

Yes there are a lot of happy endings. But I still worry about all the
bad things that can happen to owners.

I would still be worried. That's my 2 cents. I'm not saying that it's
not easy to hide ferrets in California, or not to get ferrets in Cali.
It's just bad things can still happen :(

L

[Posted in FML 6166]