1) LAWSUIT UPDATE
2) PREVIOUS LAWSUIT UPDATES ARE AVAILABLE
 
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1) LAWSUIT UPDATE
 
Both the Department of Health and Ferret Owners have now filed additional
papers supporting their respective sides.  In court today, Judge Braun
stated that he intends to review those papers and push the process along to
make a decision regarding this case as quickly as possible.  He may choose
to decide the case based on the papers alone or he might decide to take the
case to trial and allow both sides to present further evidence.  He stated
that although he is generally against making judicial decisions based on
letters, he *has* been reading the mail he's received regarding this case
since neither side had any objections to his doing so when he raised that
issue with them approximately one month ago.
 
Shortly after the temporary injunction was ordered two weeks ago, Gary
Kaskel called the Center for Animal Control and asked if there were any
seized ferrets at the shelter that were ready to be destroyed.  Although
he reminded them about the temporary injunction prohibiting the DOH from
enforcing the ferret ban pending the outcome of the lawsuit, the CAC
refused to answer his questions.  A letter was then written to the judge
explaining that by refusing to answer his questions concerning the
possibility of ferrets at the shelter and by continuing to act as if
ferrets were prohibited animals in the City of New York, the city was
violating the temporary injunction.
 
The Judge stated clearly that he was disturbed by this lack of compliance
on the part of the DOH.  The DOH responded by saying that they planned to
file an appeal against the temporary injunction anyway, to which the judge
replied that he'd most likely decide on this case long before their appeal
had any time to take effect.
 
So now we wait....
 
Keep your fingers crossed folks!
 
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2) PREVIOUS LAWSUIT UPDATES ARE AVAILABLE
 
We've added a page with summaries of our previous lawsuit updates.  If
you're interested in looking back through them, the link can be accessed
from the lawsuit page on the NYC Ferrets website.
 
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[Posted in FML issue 3042]