| How paranoid should I (or more correctly my daughter) be about the legal
| status of ferrets in California.  My daughter owns hers quite openly,
| taking him just about everywhere:  the mall shopping, coffee houses, for
| walks, et cetera.  No ones seems to care, though they certainly do
| notice.
 
Ferrets are magnets for attention - even in states where they're
*legal.*
 
I've owned ferrets in CA for 7 years.  I often took them out in public,
but never on a predictable basis.  I rarely encountered law enforcement
officials on these outings.  On those rare occasions, they never
threatened to conficate my ferrets.
 
I used our outings to educate people about ferrets, but I was always
very wary of any person asking me questions, and I did go out of my
way to avoid just about anyone in uniform.  I may be more careful
than I have to be, but I don't think losing my ferrets is worth that risk.
 
Your daughter should be most careful around any public or national park
where she might run into CA Fish and Game officials.  Not too many
other law enforcement officials really care about illegal ferrets -
unless you are actively breeding and selling them in CA.  Plus most
wouldn't know what to do with her ferret if they decided to confiscate
it (at least that's what the CHP officer told me when he stopped me on
I5 with my two stow-aways).
 
But keep in mind that ANY CA official could decide to give your
daughter a hard time.  I don't think many officials other than F&G
have the right to confiscate a ferret, but any official could suddenly
decide that her ferret is some kind of threat to the public.
 
The Humane Society is only a threat if your ferret escapes and someone
turns it in to them.  They will not return it to you and may destroy
it.  They'll probably turn it over to F&G.  The humane society and
CA F&G just don't have the man power to scan the newspapers for
illegal ferrets.  I've talked to a number of different people that
work for the humane society and F&G.  Every person was quite rude
and uneducated about ferrets.  I wouldn't want to run in to one of
them with my fuzzies in tow.
 
Here's a good and nice ferret vet in San Jose:
 
Dr. Runyan
Burbank Pet Hospital
(408) 271-7875
 
[Posted in FML issue 0822]