Hello everyone,
 
Yesterday the San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission held its
first hearing on the possibility of offering sanctuary to San Francisco
ferrets.  Several TV and radio stations covered the hearing and the issue
was picked up by UPI and reported as far away as New York and Boston.
 
The main thrust of the presentation given centered around the fact that this
domesticated pet does not belong in the hands of a wildlife agency, and that
the reason there are so many of them in California is because the public
knows this as a fact.  They also know that in the context of domesticated
pet ownership, the ferret is a far safer pet to people than the dog, and a
far safer pet to the environment than the cat.  As long as it remains
prohibited in California, good people are punished for no good reason.
 
Californians For Ferret Legalization provided packets of information to
each of the eleven commissioners.  The documents included letters from the
Smithsonian Institute, Museum of Natural History, and the United States
Department of Agriculture confirming the ferret's status as domesticated.
Sources confirming that ferrets do not go feral included the Office of
Technology Assessment, all 50 State Departments of Fish and Game, and the
California State Research Bureau, a branch of the California State Library
System.
 
Discussion touched on the ferret's relative safety to humans, especially
when compared with dogs as printed in an article in the Journal of the
American Veterinary Medical Association, 1998.  CFL also pointed out that
ferrets are one of the very few pets that people with asthma, cancer, HIV or
AIDS can own due to their lack of dander, inability to transmit cat scratch
fever or salmonella.
 
Finally, CFL pointed out that the domesticated ferret currently brings
pleasure to an estimated 2 million Americans, an estimated 250,000
Californians, and hundreds, if not thousands, of San Franciscans.  We
encouraged the Commission to adopt a policy of sanctuary for San Franciscan
ferrets so that these animals and their owners can live in peace.
 
A member of the Audubon Society next commented that ferrets are a threat to
ground-nesting birds and other small mammals.  One of the Commission members
asked if there were any documented impacts by ferrets and he said he
couldn't speak to that (of course he can't there aren't any).  He went on to
point out that since the ferret attending the hearing was a stray, that
ferrets do indeed get into the wild (if Sunnyvale can be considered the
wild, and we suppose a few stray ferrets is just too much givn the thousands
of stray cats and dogs).  The Audubon representative went on to suggest that
the public did not need another pet and asked "What's wrong with a cat?"
A CAT???  This incredible statement was followed with the outrageous
accusation that the pet industry and breeders funded our efforts.  We
objected vehemently to this baldfaced lie and told the Commission that the
comment was absolutely untrue, that good people hurt by bad government were
behind this effort.
 
I had little respect for the Audubon Society going into this issue and
have absolutely none now.  The position by this organization, one which
purportedly protects native wild birds, that Californians should get a
cat instead of a ferret shows that their anti-ferret position is purely
political.  It has nothing to do with facts or science.  It is taken purely
to accommodate CA Waterfowl and Fish and Game, which the Audubon Society
representative praised-- generating no small amount of derisive laughter
from those present.
 
So, Californians, if you've wanted a ferret, an indoor only animal 95% of
whom are neutered prior to sale, a pet that has demonstrated NO impact on
wildlife anywhere in this country..... DON'T GET ONE!  The threat to
wildlife is just too high.  Do instead, as the Audubon Society recommends,
and GET A CAT.  An outdoor pet rarely neutered that has demonstrated a
facility for establishing feral populations, and consumes millions
(nationally) of small birds, mammals and reptiles each year.*
 
This item will again be on the agenda in San Francisco on September 10th at
5:30 at the police station at 24th and Taraval.  I very much encourage San
Franciscans to attend-- after all, its your city!
 
*CFL has nothing against cats and advocates that cats be kept indoors for
their safety and be spayed or neutered.  But to try to paint the ferret as
more dangerous to wildlife than a cat is stupidity of monumental
porportions.
 
Jeanne Carley
Californians for Ferret Legalization (CFL)
410 Mountain Home Road  Woodside, CA  94062
(650) 851-3750   <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.ferretnews.org-- CFL Website
CALIFORNIANS, YOU CAN FIND OUT YOUR STATE SENATOR BY VISITING THIS SITE!!
CALL AND WRITE YOUR SENATOR AND GOV. WILSON--DON'T LET OUR BILL DIE!
[Posted in FML issue 2401]