Hello everyone,
Thanks to many, many wonderful volunteers and the stamp and other
donations we've received, we've been able to send out almost 4,500
postcards to ferret supporters letting them know the bill is on the
Governor's desk! We were also able to address and stamp another 2,000
or so postcards for the public to mail in via other volunteers so the
effort to let Governor Schwarzenegger know this bill needs to be signed
is well underway.
But the Department of Fish and Game will be recommending to the
Governor's staff that the bill be vetoed I'm certain so we must counter
that recommendation with lots of input from the ferret supporters and the
general public.
So, for those of you who have called but not gotten through, Roger
e-mailed me with a list of local numbers for the Governor. He said he
got a live person and was told they were getting some calls but not that
many locally. Hey, if you haven't called, here's your chance. You can
also pass along the local phone number to your family and friends.
Fresno Office
2550 Mariposa Mall #3013
Fresno, CA 93721
Phone: 559-445-5295
Fax: 559-445-5328
Los Angeles Office
300 South Spring Street
Suite 16701
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Phone: 213-897-0322
Fax: 213-897-0319
Riverside Office
3737 Main Street #201
Riverside, CA 92501
Phone: 909-680-6860
Fax: 909-680-6863
San Diego Office
1350 Front Street
Suite 6054
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619-525-4641
Fax: 619-525-4640
San Francisco Office
455 Golden Gate Avenue
Suite 14000
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 415-703-2218
Fax: 415-703-2803
Some of you are writing letters to the editors of your local papers.
Good for you! One of our members has already had his letter accepted by
the Sacramento Bee, congratulations Tim! That is an excellent way to
garner support for our bill. At the end of this e-mail you will see a
copy of Californians for Ferret Legalization's letter to the Governor and
feel free to use the information in the letter if it helps you. But
follow the guidlines of writing a letter to the editor (there's a strict
word limit that varies from paper to paper).
Also, Lynne e-mailed me to say that SB 89 is now on the list of subjects
on the Governor's web site. If you click on this link (or cut and paste
into your browser) http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ you will go to the
Governor's web mail site. You can then choose your subject in the drop
down menu. SB 89 is near the bottom under Wild Animals: Domestic ferrets
SB 89 (anyone see the logic in that?). Choose a support position above
the subject line and be sure to include your e-mail address. I e-mailed
earlier on this but forgot to include my address and received a message
that my address was needed so I incuded it this time. I suggest you
include your address to be sure your letter/e-mail counts.
Here is the letter I wrote to the Governor on behalf of Californians for
Ferret Legalization. It is on our letterhead so has my address.
Jeanne
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
August 31, 2004
Honorable Governor Schwarzenegger
Governor's Office
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,
SB 89, authored by Senator Dede Alpert, addresses a long standing issue
in California, an issue which currently criminalizes tens of thousands of
otherwise good citizens.
The grass roots effort to legalize ferrets in California began in the
late 1980's and watched in envy as several states legalized the ferret
by legislative action with the support of their respective wildlife
agencies: Pennsylvania, 1987, Vermont, 1989, Georgia, 1991, New
Hampshire, 1993, Michigan,1994, Massachusetts, 1995. Ferrets are
now legal in 48 states, every other state on the continent.
In California, the first bill to legalize ferrets was introduced in 1994.
Unlike other wildlife agencies, the California Department of Fish and
Game fought all attempts to remove the ferret from the list of prohibited
wildlife, a list in which it clearly cannot belong by virtue of its
status as domesticated.
The Department continued to fight ferret legalization in spite of the
results of their own 1997 Nationwide Ferret Survey, showing no documented
feral ferrets anywhere in this country at any time including California.
Frustrated, ferret owners appealed to the Fish and Game Commission, which
voted in 1995 to consider removing the ferret from the prohibited species
list. The water buffalo and camel were removed a few years earlier
from the same list without any environmental studies (according to the
Executive Secretary of the Commission, Robert Treanor, these animals
were removed because they were determined to be domesticated). Yet the
Commission was convinced by counsel that an EIR was necessary prior to
removal of the ferret.
Opponents of SB 89 maintain that an EIR needs to be done prior to
legalization and that ferret owners must fund such a study. Californians
for Ferret Legalization disagrees that any study is necessary to remove
the domesticated ferret from a wildlife list. Yet to move this issue
forward, we support SB 89 because this bill gives ferret owners the same
protection owners enjoy in the rest of the country, ensures that the
animals are spayed/neutered and vaccinated, and funds a study of the
environmental question. The issue moves forward after years of stasis.
In the absence of this bill, nothing is solved. Hundreds of thousands of
ferrets are here already and their owners will never come forward, fund a
study, and risk discovery without the kind of protection this bill
provides them.
Because the current law is unreasonable it is widely disobeyed. The
Department of Fish and Game does not have the resources to ferret out
owners, and sporadic enforcement only serves to frighten and anger
ferret fans driving them and their pets underground.
An unbiased study will show that ferrets are safer to people and the
environment than either the dog or cat. Californians for Ferret
Legalization urges you to sign SB 89 so this question can be resolved.
Sincerely,
Jeanne Carley, Co-Founder
[Posted in FML issue 4623]
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