CA's AB409 bill would change the regulating organization for all animals
within this state.  That means, if it's a liscensed animal, whether rabies
or animal control, then it is restricted in some way and therefore
potentially under the juridisction of Fish and Game if this law passes.  We
need EVERY CA resident to stop this bill.  Cat owners, dog lovers, pot
bellied pig fanciers, reptile enthusiasts........ This bill will effect ALL
of them.  So if you know ANYONE in CA, be they Ferret owner or not, get them
to contact the committee members on this bill as well as their own senator.
 
I am posting an exerpt from the bill.  It's the amended portion, and it is
a quote from the bill.  Although not the entire bill, it definately gets the
point of interest to all of us across.
 
This has got to be stopped.
 
Marie Davis
(1) Existing law defines the term ''wild animal'' for purposes of laws
regulating the importation, transportation, and sheltering of restricted
live wild animals to mean any animal of the class of Aves (birds), class
Mammalia (mammals), class Amphibia (frogs, toads, salamanders), classAB
409 - 2 - 95 Osteichthyes (bony fishes), class Monorhina (lampreys), class
Reptilia (reptiles), class Crustacea (crayfish), or class Gastropoda (slugs,
snails), as specified, which is not normally domesticated in this state as
determined by the Fish and Game Commission.  This bill would delete that
definition of ''wild animal'' and, instead, define the term ''restricted
animal'' to mean any class, order, family, genus, species, subspecies, or
any domesticated or other captive-bred variety, breed, or strain, or any
hybrid as determined by the commission.  The bill would authorize the
commission, in cooperation with the Department of Food and Agriculture and
the State Department of Health Services, to designate any animal as
''restricted'' in order to carry out the legislative intent of specified
provisions pertaining to the protection and welfare of animals in the state.
Existing law defines an ''enforcing officer'' for purposes of those
provisions regulating the importation, transportation, and sheltering of
restricted animals to mean any enforcement personnel of the Department of
Fish and Game, state plant quarantine officers, and county agricultural
commissioners.  The bill would also include any peace officer within that
definition of ''enforcing officers.'' The bill would make it unlawful to
import, transport, possess, or release alive into this state a restricted
animal except as expressly authorized by regulations adopted by the
commission, in cooperation with the Department of Food and Agriculture,
and the State Department of Health Services.
[Posted in FML issue 2353]