This is in response to the post about not bringing ferrets into California
until they're legal, which I acknowledge as a valid and caring opinion but
to which I wish to show some of another side.  I saw my first ferret when I
was 15 and working as a kennel attendant at a vet before and after school.
I waited 7 years before I felt in a safe enough position to get my first
ferret (safe for the ferret, that is), and in that time I signed petitions
and posted flyers about legalization.  A year later, after successfully
integrating the first into our animal household and working through her
biting issues, we got another.  I made sure of a vet before getting either,
and I don't take them anywhere questionable.  I agree that no one should
smuggle in a ferret at risk to the ferret (planes are questionable, I'd
never do it).  If someone hadn't broken the law, though, I would never have
seen a ferret and never cared that they were illegal.  With such opposition
as the Sierra Club and the Audobon Society, I would have received only
information on how vicious they are, and how detrimental to the environment,
not how fun and sweet they can be.  I have friends who want ferrets after
seeing mine; most everyone who my ferrets have met wouldn't have cared about
the law until they saw what a ferret was really like.  Besides, though it's
a generalization, I think that someone willing to drive 6 hours each way to
get a pet has a better chance of being a good pet owner than someone who
just sees one in a store and brings it home with no idea of what they're
getting into.
 
[LD]
[Posted in FML issue 2123]