This was heard by one of our supporters and may provide some background on
the Audubon Society.  Seems as if even regarding their "specialty" they
don't get it right!
 
Jeanne:
 
Thanks for the update on AB 363 and its potential move to the floor by June
5.  Here's an interesting bit on the Audubon Society's past performance
concerning California's "biodiversity" I heard this morning on NPR.  You are
welcome to post this on AOL for me.  Thanks!  == MAX ==
 
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As you consider how to act as AB 363 approaches its floor vote in a few
weeks, here's some information on the Audubon Society--one of several groups
OPPOSED to ferrets in California--and its past efforts on behalf of
California's "fragile ecosystem" and "biodiversity."
 
A National Public Radio show called "Living On Earth" presented a piece on
Saturday, May 17, 1997, recounting how the Audubon Society battled the
federal government over its plan to capture and remove the last of the giant
California condors living in the San Joaquin Valley to a captive breeding
program.
 
The condor population, which once boasted huge numbers as it roamed across
the ENTIRE North American continent, had been reduced to a mere 14 birds.
The principal reasons: hunters, power lines, and agricultural poisons which
had been ingested by the small animals upon which the condor feeds.
<<Notice all the connections to HUMANS>>
 
The federal government's plan called for the safe capture of all remaining
condors and the imposition of a captive breeding program to increase their
numbers and permit their reintroduction into the wild.  The Audubon Society
OPPOSED this plan based on their opinion that it would be impossible for the
condors to be successfully released from captivity.
 
Well, nearly twenty years later, the captive breeding giant California
condor population is reproducing at SIX TIMES the rate which had been seen
in the wild, and more than 130 have been released from captivity and are
living and reproducing successfully in the wild.
 
Had the Audubon Society prevailed in its opposition, it is all but certain
that the giant California condor would have been reduced to a watercolor
print in one of John J.'s books.  Whatever "science" the Audubon society
relied upon to form its opposition was obviously unsound.  Members of the
California Assembly should be CHALLENGED to remember this FACT as they weigh
their vote on AB 363.  As the old proverb reminds us: "a leopard cannot
change its spots."
 
The Audubon Society's OPPOSITION to the legalization of domestic ferrets in
California on the basis that escaped domestic ferrets will establish
themselves in feral, breeding populations is contrary to all known research
and actual observations of ferrets in North America which has demonstrated
that DOMESTIC FERRETS CANNOT SURVIVE IN THE WILD.
 
If you choose to offer your opinion in support of AB 363, please include
this information for your elected representative.  He or she deserves to
have the best possible information at hand when deciding the fate of our
beloved fuzzies.
 
Max H. Herr
(a current non-owner with a "vested interest")
[Posted in FML issue 1938]