This is the gist of my last wave of letters to the senators who voted no
on SB55..
 
California originaly allowed neutered male ferrets, with a permit till 1986,
when they decided to stop issuing permits and defined the ferret as a
detrimental animal.  The three times in 1986/87 I tried to get a permit, they
gave me a different excuse each time.  1.  Ferrets carry rabies (Untrue as
there had only been 2 cases since 1954 of ferrets with rabies in the US and
one of the cases was directly traced to giving the wrong vacine.) 2.  Ferrets
are vicious, wild animals who will make unprovoked attacks on small children)
(Also unsubstaniated and ferrets are domestic animals, not wild) 3.  Ferrets
are a danger to California agriculture as they are chicken killers.
(Unsubstaniated and not likely in a place like California where chickens are
kept in hanging cages or cages kept up of the ground..and ferrets are lousey
climbers, being as they are desended from burrowing animals.)
   The California Fish & Game has added yet another unsubstaniated excuse since
then..That ferrets can get loose and form wild collonies and wipe out ground
nesting birds and other wildlife. (Unsubstaniated and not likely as California
has many carnivores that would view the ferret as a tastey snack, such as
coyotes, pumas, bobcats, foxes and the native long-tailed weasel..California
also has many feral dogs and cats.
 
  The Fish & Game has been known to harrass people and pet shops, costing the
state millions of dollars as they waste their time chasing people with pet
turtles and many species of fish that could not posibly get loose and cause
a problem.  The Fish & Game are allowed to carry weapons and act as police,
but with NO police training.  Why do they allow the F&G dept to act like a
military arm of the government?  Why are millions of dollars wasted chasing
people with exotic pets, when that money could be used to buy land and mantain
wildlife preserves to stop species in California from dying out due to habitat
destruction?  This isn't just an issue of ferrets, its an issue of mismanagment
of the Fish & Game Dept.  Has anyone ever looked into how the F&G spends its
money?  OUR TAX DOLLARS!
 
   Also..Aside from the F&G, I had heard that the Cattleman's Asso opposed SB55.
I talked with them and they said they were drug into this last year with the
other ferret bill and they had no position then or now..
  As for the ferrets themselves, people will keep them anyway as they can be
purchased at anyplace surrounding California (Oregon, Arizona & Nevada) and
are quite legal in 47 states.  Many of the people never see the F&G code and
have no idea the animal is illegal here.  When they find out, they are afraid
to take the ferret to the vet, since they can't get rid of it, having become
attached to their pet like you would with any cat or dog, if you have them.
The lack of vet care means ferrets dying as their owners watch, helpless with
the fear of the F&G dept.  It means they are NOT getting vacinated either.
 
  One wonders how many other exotic pets out there are in the same boat as
the F&G dept REFUSES to issue ANY permit for a PET.  Pygmy hedgehogs, prairie
dogs, sugar gliders, gerbils, etc can be purchased at almost any pet shop in
other states.  Exotics are a HUGE market in Texas and Oklahoma nowdays as
people are looking for an alternative pet to just a cat or dog.
 
  As for this person in Nevada who claims their grandkid was killed by a ferret,
I have heard that the child had a crushed skull.  How would a 2 lb animal do
that?  Sounds like another lame attempt to panic people much like the so-called
'Pet kills child' article in the Orange Co. Register, where a pet rat was acused
of killing a baby.  The facts showed that the family was living in their car,
the baby died from sudden infant death syndrome and the pet rat was in stage 2
starvation and had not eaten in 7-10 days.  But people still tried to blame the
death on an innocent pet.  Look beyound those crocodile tears and find the facts
before judging..
 
   Please support SB55 in California.  There are animals being murdered by
the Fish & Game dept just for the crime of being a pet..and more dying due to
lack of vet care because owners fear the vet will turn them in, even though the
majority of vets never would, as they care more about the animals health, then
a F&G code that means death to the animal.
[Posted in FML issue 1206]