>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Misty's Comments
 
Various snippage so I may address several points in this letter.
 
>By calling the attempt to force the ferret issue into the California courts,
>silly, I was privately outraged by Misty's comments but certainly did not
...
>Californians have fought this battle for almost a decade.  ... In the
>meantime, ferrets have been euthanized, though rarely in the last 3-4 years,
>and all ferrets in CA, OVER 500,000 OF THEM, continue to live under a cloud
>of threatened confiscation, and a break in the human-animal bond.  The cost
>in time and money spent...
>...Perhaps Misty is unaware that many Californians have expressed a very
>strong interest in a public demonstration by themselves, ferrets in hand,
>as a means of getting our message across to the legislature and the media.
>Perhaps Misty didn't know that Californians are incensed at seeing other
>states willing to do right by their citizens while California DFG continues
>to spread it's ferret propaganda.  ...
>...Enjoy your fuzzies, Misty, safe in the knowledge that they are protected
>from confiscation or euthanasia by public authorities.  It's something
>Californians hope for every day, and you'll never know [how that feels]
 
Well, to start off with, I don't think anyone here thinks the efforts to get
ferrets legalized in California silly, doubts the estensive efforts and
money poured into it by Californians (and folks from elsewhere in the
country, you might acknowledge), feel that the California F&G is right, or
doens't hope for a legal resolution.  And, BTW, don't assume those OUTSIDE
California are safe from ferret confiscation or euthanasia.  You may
remember a little ferret named Kodo from a ferret legal state who wasn't
safe.
 
OK, having said that, let me make a few points here.  You need to turn
around and look at how us non-CA folks see the situation there.  We don't
usually see posts from people in CA saying, "Oh, I took my ferret out and
the cops stop to pet him and thought he was great." We see stories of how
rescuers will lie to people about what the animals are so they can get them
out before the police arrive and confiscate the animals, we see a story of a
man arrested and fined for refusing to tell F&G where a ferret is, we hear
stories of ferrets held without the owner knowing where or if they're being
cared for and then shipped out of state at an unknown time to the owner, we
see CA citizens posting anonymously for fear the F&G will track them down
and confiscate ferrets.  And to top it all off, there's this hideous fiasco
with a ferret in a ferret LEGAL state that causes people in ferret LEGAL
states to decide never to take their ferrets in public in the fear it will
happen to them.  And then someone posts that they took a ferret IN PUBLIC to
a PROTEST!!  I'm sure that Misty and I weren't the only ones who did a
double-take and questioned the wisdom of that action.
 
OK, so now we know that it's only a few places in CA that bother about it at
all.  But most of the stories we here are from places they DO care, and the
animals suffer.  We all hope and support the CA legalization effort, but I
really think you're being awfully harsh with a judgement here, also.  We can
only make a judgement with the information available, and most of the
information available paints a pretty dire picture for ferrets in public.
Questioning the wisdom of taking a ferret to a protest does not equal
belitting the legalization efforts.
 
Michelle
Flutist
[Posted in FML issue 2119]