Hello FMLers
 
On the heels of the incredible news that the Fish and Game Department
expected ferret supporters to pay for a full-blown Environmental Impact
Report (EIR,) prepared by a consultant for $50,00.00 - $150,000.00, we're
now told the Commission will publish notice in December of their intent to
amend the regulation banning ferrets, and the hearing should be held in
February.
 
What this good news means is that the Commission will open a window on
public commentary for 45 days beginning sometime in January and ending in
February.  This window is just like a real window-- don't send your letters
until it is open!  Paper gliders don't sail through closed windows and
neither will your letter of support.  But when it is open, and I'll let you
know, please write a strong letter supporting legalization.  Ask friends and
family members to do the same.  We have to show how much popular support
there is for the State to decriminalize ferret ownership in California.
This hearing is ciritcal to legalization and we need everyone's help.
 
Californians, if you've not participated in any of our letter-writing
campaigns before, please don't sit this one out!  The Commission has the
authority to remove ferrets from the list of prohibited wildlife.  THEY CAN
LEGALIZE FERRETS.  Write those letters and ask everyone you know to do the
same.  Make it easy for them and let them know the facts-- We're the only
state in the continental U.S.  to prohibit ownership of one of the safest
domesticated pets to people and the enviornment.  California has no right to
ban ownership of any domesticated pet.
 
We'll also need strong attendance at the hearing(s).  Last year Robert
Treanor, Executive Director of the Commission, spoke of having two hearings,
one in southern California and one in northern California.  I don't know yet
if that's still going to be the case, but we'll let you know.
 
If you don't live in California, your letter may help us too.  I want to run
the idea by our experts, at this but I think the fact that you won't visit,
can't move here, or relocate for business or school, has merit, and the
Commission should know about it.  You may also have friends or acquaintances
that live in California, so if you do, please get them to write those
letters.
 
I understand that the department will be producing an environmental document
of some sort.  If it is anything other than a negative declaration, it is
slander.  If you read my last update, 94.6% of the projects under CEQA
(California Environmental Quality Act) get a negative declaration.  With 50
letters from 50 State Department's of Fish and Game documenting an absence
of feral ferrets, with the omission of ferrets from the list of feral
domesticated species in the Office of Technology Assesment report, Harmful
Non-Indigenous Species in the United States, the preponderance of the
evidence suggests that ferrets will have NO impact on the evironment.  With
the recent legalization of the ferret in Massachusetts, Michigan, Georgia,
New Hampshire and Vermont, a negaitive declaration is clearly appropriate.
 
As far as the issue of Public Health goes, it's hard to make ferrets out to
be a serious threat to public safety when so many states permit them.  Are
children different here?  Are we talking about a different kind of ferret?
The answer is no, they're the same.  And, the recent quarantine policies for
vaccinated ferrets that bite adopted by Kansas, New Hampshire, Texas, South
Carolina and Maryland reveal that the California Department of Health
Services concern that vaccinated ferrets would have to be put down is simply
not true.  There's no reason that California couldn't adopt a reasonable
approach to bite instances along the lines of these states and the other
states, such as Colorado, that quarantine ferrets.
 
So, the good news is that we're going to have our hearing after all.  Your
participation in writing letters and attending the hearings is key to our
success.  As soon as the dates and locations of the hearings are made known,
as soon as the window on public commentary is opened, we'll let you know.
In the meantime, sharpen those pencils, flex those fingers, and get ready
for THE opportunity to make your voice heard by a Commission that has the
power to LEGALIZE YOUR PETS.
 
Jeanne Carley
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[Posted in FML issue 1666]