Hello everyone,
 
HSUS attitude was just one of the factors, including time, space and new
faces, involved in the change of HSUS position on ferrets, but anyone that
says it's "real" easy to explain, but wasn't there to see it, clearly
doesn't know the whole story.
 
Martha Armstrong told me she opposed legalization in MA when there wasn't an
exclusion keeping pet stores from selling ferrets.  We didn't want HSUS
oppositon in CA, and it wasn't "easy" to keep them from opposing our bill
because our bill also did not exclude pet store sales of ferrets.  It took a
lot of work to convince Martha to not oppose the ferret bill in CA including
asking the then head of the California Animal Control Director's
Association, Pat Miller, to call her.  That's actually when the CACDA board
first voted to support our efforts.
 
Also, plenty of folks opposed to these changes at HSUS were still around and
even attended the meeting including the infamous Rachael Lamb and Michael
Winikoff, West Coast Regional Director for HSUS, (he literally led the
vociferous anti-ferret HSUS voice in CA at DFG and State hearings).
 
In major bureaucracies a new person doesn't just waltz in and change
everything in one fell swoop when the "underlings" have been allowed to run
rampant on an issue.  That's where gentle communication and data production
are critical to bolster the support for the newcomer and provide them with
information that can be used to sway, educate and eventually, if necessary,
dominate the underlings.
 
That is just part of what went into this meeting.  I doubt most of the
participants would describe the change in HSUS as that "easy" to explain,
otherwise, there would have been no need for the 8 or ten of us to travel to
HSUS to meet with Martha (not to mention the tons of phone calls
beforehand).  If she could have just changed HSUS position on ferrets
unilatterally, she would have.
 
Jeanne Carley
Californians for Ferret Legalization
410 Mountain Home Road  Woodside, CA  94062
(415) 851-3750   <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.ccnet.com/~beisners/gsfs/lobby.html
CALIFORNIANS, YOU CAN FIND OUT YOUR ASSEMBLYMEMBER AND STATE SENATOR BY
VISITING THIS SITE!! IT'S TIME TO CALL AND WRITE YOUR   SENATOR--THE FIRST
COMMITTEE VOTE WILL HAPPEN SOON!
[Posted in FML issue 1978]