This is a letter that Governor Gray Davis asked the Dept. of Fish And
Game to write to me regarding legalization of ferrets in California.
 
California has legal restrictions on the importation and possession of
domestic ferrets and many other types of animals.
 
These restrictions are necessary to protect our public health and safety,
agriculture interests, and wildlife and other natural resources.  The
California Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Food
and Agriculture, and California Department of Health Services are state
agencies that are mandated to protect these interests.  Escaped or
abandoned ferrets at large are often captured by animal control agencies
and humane societies in California.
 
A domestic ferret has lived in a house and has never hunted would have
little chance of surviving long in the wild.  However, many owned ferrets
hunt, either because they were trained to do so by their owners or because
they are experienced at killing pest mice or rats, or small pets that they
find in a house.
 
Those experienced hunters would have a much better chance of surviving on
their own in the wild if they escaped or were released.  None breeding
domestic ferrets have been found surviving in the wild even in wintertime
in southeastern Alaska.  Domestic ferrets have formed breeding populations
in the wild in many parts of the world.
 
Professional national surveys do not support claims of a half million to
one million ferrets in California.  In a nation wide pet ownership survey
the American Veterinary Medicine Association estimated that there were
791,000 pet ferrets owned in the United States in 1996.  At that national
rate there would be fewer than, perhaps far fewer then, 100,000 ferrets in
California.
 
California Fish And Game Commission, at it's April 6th 2000 meeting in
Sacramento, listen to a request from Californian's for Ferret Legalization
to consider removing ferrets from the restricted species list.  As
explained at the Commission meeting, a regulatory action by the commission
is considered a project under the California Environmental quality act
(sections 20191 and 21160 of the public resources code), which requires
the preparation of a governmental document therefore at the conclusion of
the public testimony, the commission directed the Californians for ferret
legalization, as project proponents, to fund the preparation of proposed
action.  Commission would not be in a position to again consider this
matter until such an environmental document is prepared.
 
Or departments concern over legalization of ferrets for pet keeping
purposed centers around the risk to wildlife, predation by escaped
ferrets, or predation and competition from breeding populations that
might become established in the wild.  California has such a wide range
of climates and habitats, more varied then any other state, that it is
likely they would thrive here either as feral individuals or as localized
breeding populations information about the concerns our agency has about
the domestic ferret is available on-line from our web site at
http://www.dfg.ca.gov, or at
http://www.dfg.ca.gov-hcpb-ferret_issues.html.
 
Additionally, the Veterinary Public Health Section of the Department of
Health Services (601 North 7th Street, Sacramento, California 95814) has
concerns regarding the public health and safety matters.
 
Thank you for expressing your concerns about ferret legalization matters
in California, if you have further questions please contact Mr. Ronald D.
Rempel, Deputy Director, Habitat Conservation Division, at the address or
by telephone at (916) 653-1070
 
Signed
Robert C.  Hight
 
 
We are not trying to flame any state or person.  We only want to let the
FMLers read a letter that we have received from the DFG and the chicken
Governor of California.
 
Myself I would like to know where in Southeast Alaska ferrets could
survive the winter.  This letter really made us laugh..  It is full
of holes and sites no up to date info or statistics.
 
How many ferret owners teach there ferrets to hunt or kill.  We don't know
of any that do except in Michigan where you can only own ferrets to hunt
not as pets, or where the US Gov't is trying to repopulate the wild ferret
businesses.
 
[Moderator's note: The subject of the next post fits so perfectly with
the links given above, don't you think?  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3629]