While looking through the info that the USDA Animal Welfare Dept sent me,
I noted that under Part 1 of Subchapter A-Animal Welware..The Definition of
Terms..Under the definition of Retail pet stores...
 
  Retail pet stores means any outlet where only the following animals are sold
or offered for sale, at retail, for use as pets: Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea
pigs, hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, gophers, chinchilla, domestic ferrets,
domestic farm animals, birds, and cold-blooded species.
 
**
 
Notice they called the ferret a DOMESTIC ferret and not an exotic or wild
animal. USDA doesn't even concider ferrets to be exotics, but defines them
as DOMESTIC animals.
 
Now if the California Fish & Game would listen to the Federal Depts..(sigh)
Maybe they should rename California to...U.S.S.R #2.
 
  I admit I was a little weirded out by the thought of gophers as pet animals,
but maybe the USDA figured if you can't get rid of the little buggers, you might
as well use them for pets.  Explains the domestic prairie dogs, even if the
USDA didn't list them...The thought of taking a pest species and making it a
pet species, that is.  Hmmmmm...Weird.
[Posted in FML issue 1192]