Now I often do not agree with Bill & Diane Killian's opinions, but then
sometimes I think they hit it right on the nose.  This is one of those
"right on" times.  I live in a state where every little city writes their
own animal codes and it is a coin toss as to whether ferrets are illegal,
legal, or just "unregulated."  Every one of the cities where they are
specifically legal has different codes, and darned near every one of them
has something that they DON'T require for cats and dogs.  I have worked on
my own, with my local club, and with other ferret clubs and enthusiasts to
make changes to codes at local and state levels.  For the most part at
every level less is more.  If you can make a few simple changes to add "and
ferrets" to the places that say "dogs and cats" and leave it at that you
are much less likely to stir up unnecessary fears or concern that the extra
work burden will be more than it's worth.  You would not believe how often
the fear of more work or more dollars spent is enough to turn off animal
control or city councils without further consideration.  I live in a city
where ferrets are licensed, but so are cats and dogs.  They are required to
be leashed outside the home, but so are cats and dogs.  The language of the
code is atrocious (they slapped it together so that the wording is sloppy),
but at least the AC director will no longer tell me that folks selling and
buying ferrets are doing "just like illegal drugs!" The end result of the
code is actually *less restrictive* (a good thing) for ferrets than for
cats and dogs!  If animal codes treat ferrets differently, you can bet that
you're likely to find AC people who believe that it makes ferrets illegal,
dangerous, unadoptable, or mandatory to kill and test in the event of a
bite (even though state Health Dept.  rules specify quarantine) regardless
of what it really says.  Then the other thing that concerns me is how some
of these folks start making special rules for ferrets and get carried away
with it to the point that no one in their right mind is going to bother
with compliance.  Do you think that a ferret owner should have to carry
$100,000 liability insurance and have permission from all neighbors within
200 feet of his property line to have a ferret, then pay a $50 annual per
ferret permit fee on top of that?  Ridiculous!  But one local city has that
in their code!  I understand the concern for educating owners in the hopes
of providing better and more permanent ferret homes, but I don't think that
the place I want it to come from is as a mandate in the city code for
licensing animals.  My $0.02.
 
Debra in Fort Worth
[Posted in FML issue 2839]