I received permission from David Gaines, the author of this post
and the director of legislative affairs for the AFA, to crosspost.
Permission is granted to crosspost the following IN ITS ENTIRETY
and WITH IDENTIFYING INFORMATION contained therein.

He also sent me the official position statement of the AFA, which he
said will also be available online soon. I will get that ready and
send to you as well. Not sure if this made it to the FML. I will check
and see.

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 From: David Gaines <[log in to unmask]>

As the director of legislative affairs for the American Ferret
Association, which is leading the ferret community's response to HR
669, I'd like to take a moment to let people know what is going on with
this issue. The hysteria surrounding it is unlike anything I've seen in
almost ten years of working on behalf of ferrets.

The main source of opposition to this bill is the Pet Industry Joint
Advisory Council (PIJAC). This is the trade organization for retail pet
stores. As we all know, giant pet store chains such as PetSmart, Petco,
and Petland are not exactly devoted to ferret welfare. Right from the
start, anything that PIJAC says publically must be balanced against
what organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS), which is very pro-ferret welfare, have to say. PIJAC, to give
you some perspective, has no problem with people owning clearly wild &
dangerous animals such as tigers as "non-traditional pets." However,
PIJAC is correct on the one aspect of HR 669 that is (and should be)
of concern to ferret owners. See below.

AFA has no quarrel to pick with Delegate Bordallo, the sponsor of the
bill, over the main issue at hand, which is preventing genuinely
nonnative invasive wildlife from destroying ecosystems and endangering
both human beings and other animals. The science behind this is beyond
dispute (regardless of what PIJAC says), and in any event the bill
addresses an issue that has nothing to do with the domestic ferret and
therefore we are not taking a position on any of the bill's provisions
except section 14(5)(D), that part of the definitions that spells out
which animals are specifically excluded from the bill's definition of
"nonnative wildlife species." The only household pets listed are cats,
dogs, rabbits, and goldfish. That is what the problem is for us, and
it is what I have been focusing my efforts on. The end of that section
provides a "catch-all" phrase under which ferrets, guinea pigs, and
other obviously domestic household pets can be excluded as well
("....or any other species or variety of species that is determined
by the Secretary [of the Interior] to be common and clearly
domesticated."). However, we don't want to have to rely on that kind
of vague process in order to prove something that has already been
proven over and over for many years now.

I have been communicating with HSUS, a major supporter of HR 669, and
they've agreed to ask that _mustela putorius furo_ be added to the
list of exempted species in section 14(5)(D) of the bill. This is very
good news. If the bill's sponsor, Delegate Madeliene Bordallo of Guam,
with whose office I am also in contact, is amenable to that, then the
bill becomes completely moot from our perspective and no one needs to
worry any longer if it passes or not. I've provided Delegate
Bordallo's office with a variety of ordinances from around the
country, at their request, either specifically exempting the ferret
from lists of prohibited wildlife, or including the ferret within the
definition of a domestic companion animal along with dogs and cats.

In any event, my own feeling is that the bill is unlikely to make it
out of committee, and even less likely to pass both the House and the
Senate and be signed into law. It has comparatively few co-sponsors,
and a similar bill failed to make it out of committee last year.

I will be attending the subcommittee hearing down on Capitol Hill on
Thursday morning. Prior to that, the AFA will be releasing a statement
on HR 669 and providing talking points and other guidelines for people
to use when contacting members of the subcommittee.

I hope this clarifies things for you. I am very optimistic about this
situation and am happy to answer any questions. Meanwhile, stay tuned
to the AFA website at www.ferret.org for up to date information on the
ferret community's response to this bill. For complete information on
H.R. 669 and its status, go to the Library of Congress' official
website for tracking bills,
http://thomas.loc.gov
and do a search on "Bill Number" using "H.R. 669" as the search string.

David Gaines
Director, Legal and Legislative Affairs
American Ferret Association

-- 
Renee Downs
"Eventually we will realize that if we destroy the ecosystem we
 destroy ourselves." Jonas Salk
"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." Amelia Earhart
It's amazing how much can be accomplished if nobody cares who gets
the credit!
Ferret Emergency Response, Rescue & Evacuation Team (F.E.R.R.E.T.)
http://www.ferretemergency.org

[Posted in FML 6308]