California residents, now is the time to write to your state Senator
regardless of whether he/she is on the Senate Natural Resources Committe.
Our bill is currently scheduled to be heard in the Senate Natural Resources
Committe on January 9th, but has to pass the ENTIRE Senate by the end of
January. It is critical that all senators be contacted now! Call your
county Registrar of Voters to identify your senator and get their room
number.
Also send letters to the members of the State Senate Committe on Natural
Resources and Wildlife. Last April the same committe voted 7 to 3 against
the bill.
The members who voted YES:
Senator Tom Hayden (Chair), 10951 W. Pico Blvd, Ste 202, Los Angeles 90064
Senator Maurice Johannessen, 410 Hemsted #200, Redding 96002
Senator Dick Monteith, 1620 N. Carpenter Road, Ste A4, Modesto 95351
NOT VOTING:
Senator Lucy Killea, 2550 Fifth Ave, Ste 152, San Diego 92103
FAX 619/696-8930
VOTING NO:
Senator Mike Thompson, 50 D Street, Ste 120, Santa Rosa 95404
FAX 707/576-2773
Senator Patrick Johnston, 1020 N Street, Ste 504, Sacramento 95814
Senator Tim Leslie, 1200 Melody Lane, Ste 110, Roseville 95678
Senator Henry Mello, 701 Ocean Street, Room 318 A, Santa Cruz 95060-4096
FAX 408/425-5124
Senator Jack O'Connell, 228 W Carillo, Ste F, Santa Barbara 93101
FAX 805/966-3707
Senator Don Rogers, PO Box 902725, Palmdale 93590 FAX 805/266-1237
Senator Hilda Solis, 4401 Santa Anita Ave/2nd Fl, El Monte 91731
FAX 818/448-8062
***** Sample Letter ******
Hon. _____
Room ____ State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Senator _____,
Please support SB55, the ferret legalization bill when it comes before
you in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife on January 9th.
Ferrets are legal in 48 states. There is no reason they should not be legal
in California as well.
The California ferret ban has caused a great deal of heartache and grief.
I hope you will do your part to right this terrible injustice.
Please vote yes on SB 55.
Sincerely,
Your name and address
Additional paragraphs you may want to include in the letters to senators.
How is it that the bill to legalize ferrets in Massachusetts passed all
committees and both houses unanimously, while California continues to
criminalize good citizens over this obviously non-issue? No less than
six states have legalized the domestic ferret in the last six years bringing
the total to 48 states. My frustration is not with the legislature, but
with the Department of Fish and Game. They are the only wildlife agency in
the United States to fight the efforts by the citizens to reclaim what is
rightfully theirs: the right to domestic pet ownership. Why alienate good
people from their government? Why waste precious tax-payer dollars?
Ferrets are just as precious and just as domesticated as dogs and cats.
In 48 states they are legal and loving members of millions of households.
But in California they are mistakenly listed as wildlife and they and their
owners are outlaws.
Please give ferrets and their owners the legal status they deserve.
Precious tax-payer dollars are being wasted on an issue that is clearly
outside the Department of Fish and Game's jurisdiction - the regulation of
a single domesticated species.
Ferrets are legal in 48 states and in virtually the rest of the world.
Ferrets are classified as a domesticated species by the United States
Department of Agriculture as well as countless other authorities in the
field of mammalogy.
All domesticated animals are considered private property and are
protected by California's state constitution.
Ferrets pose no threat to agriculture or wildlife. All 50 states report
that there are no feral populations of domestic ferrets and no adverse
effects on wildlife or agricultural interests.
Other bills to legalize the ferret had the support of their wildlife
agencies such as the bills in Massachusetts and Michigan.
Ferrets are statistically a safer pet for children than domestic dogs as
reported by the Center for Disease Control, The Journal of the American
Medical Association, and the Journal of American Veterinary Medical
Association.
**********
You may also want to include the text from Massachusetts' Govenor William
Weld's of speech that was published in the FML on 12/13/95, issue 1411.
[Posted in FML issue 1432]
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