Like Alicia I also wrote a letter to Teri at AVAR letting her know that in
fact the CA F&G routinely goes after ferret owners or people reported as
being ferret owners, that some people in CA have expressed that the ban
in some areas has a negative impact on the amount and quality of vet care
available or which they feel comfortable seeking, etc.
 
There seems to be an extreme amount of naive acceptance at AVAR for
anything told by someone with a title (CA F&G, PETA, etc.) without
verification being done.
 
This is a group which claims to represent vets.  Perhaps vets can get them
to pay attention to actual facts.  I have passed along an important
information resource contact to Teri so we'll see if there starts to be be
any interest in actually researching, rather than only in digging in heels
and assuming that whatever is said must be correct: the CA F&G doesn't go
after ferrets and ferret people, that CA people never encounter any
reduction in veterinary care due to the ban, that ferrets in CA are safe,
that there aren't rescue operations in place in CA, that MF must have
actually applied for a permit in France just because PETA said so.  (The
last may actually have happened but I sure have not found ANY way to verify
it so far...) These falsehoods on which AVAR has based public statements
can cause a great deal of damage.
 
I think perhaps we should try to find out how many members AVAR has and how
many of them are vets, what AVAR's connections are, etc.  Anyone interested
in the task?
 
It is always a shame to see groups which could be helpful and which have
actually done good things on other issues become so involved in "mission"
that they forget to pay attention to facts before making public statements,
and forget to actually take the well-being of the animals into
consideration in their final conclusions.
 
I am hoping that perhaps VETS might get this group to be more accurate,
realistic, and beneficial.  I apologize for misplacing the snail mail
address of the group since I know that many vets will prefer that.  I
posted it a few days ago, though, and it also might be handy on
http://www.avar.org/ which I can't get to come up for me this morning.
 
[P.S.]
DO note that Alicia mentioned AVAR's possible willingness to create
problems for CA ferrets, so if you are in that state KEEP YOUR ADDRESS
PRIVATE!!!!!!!
[Posted in FML issue 2913]