>Well, folks, I am very sorry to hear about what happened in Californina.
>But smashing Pat isn't going to change a thing but make an already upset
>person more upset and hurting.  We were not in their shoes, so we cannot
>say why they had ferrets "out in the open."  Maybe we would have done the
>same thing.  Maybe not.  Bottom line, we DON'T know.
 
If we don't know whether we would willingly place the safety of our ferrets
on the line, prehaps it is time to reconsider the dedication we claim to
have to them.  Ferrets are much like little children -- they depend on
their human caregivers for food, shelter, health care, and safety.  Like
children, they are incapable of caring for themselves.  Because of that
dependance, ferret care givers have a responsibility to ensure that they
are not placed in situations where their very lives can be endangered.  I
can't speak for others, but I certainly know for a fact that I would NEVER
place any one of my ferrets in such a potentially dangerous situation.
The bottom line is that anyone using some common sense SHOULD know what
they would do.
 
>Nonviolent protest is not a bad thing.  Violence is bad.  Breaking
>someone's door down to get to a few fuzzy animals is a bad thing.  Come
>on folks.  There wasn't a meth lab in there or anything, no was there a
>suspected serial killer hiding in the bathtub.
 
Let's keep things in perspective there -- there was a request that he open
the door and he refused, even though the CA officials had a valid warrant.
The door was battered in execution of a valid warrant.  That entire
incident could have been prevented by opening the door upon request.
 
>Yes, the law is the law.  No argument.  But bad laws can and should be
>changed.  And it takes courageous people to change them.
 
Civil disobedience can be an effective weapon against bad and foolish laws,
that is true And, historically it has been effective in the long run
against many bad laws.  But there is a huge difference between courage
and foolhardiness.  Civil disobedience comes with consequences, and those
who engage in civil disobedience must be willing to face the consequences
of their actions.  In the past, practicioners of civil disobedience have
understood that their actions could lead to their arrest, and in severe
situations to physical harm to themselves.  Those individuals carefully
weighed the consequences of their actions and accepted those consequences.
And there is where the problem arises.  Ferrets cannot carefully weigh the
consequences of a protest.  They cannot understand that their behavior
(natural and innocent as it may be) could result in their physical
destruction.  What happened in San Diego was not courageous -- the incident
was one of foolishness and foolhardiness.  It was foolish of the mother
of a four-year-old to let the child wander around unattended.  It was
foolhardy to hold a ferret picnic, with ferrets in attendance, in a public
park in a state where ferrets are illegal and subject to confiscation.  A
courageous person opposes a bad law and at the same time protects the
innocent.  A foolhardy person ignores the consequences of the actions and
doesn't think about the safety of those around him/her.
 
The sad thing is that this is not the first such incident involving the
same players.  The outcome of the earlier incident was tragic.  There was
hard learned experience at hand, and yet that experience was ignored.
There is an old common sense adage "Once burned, twice shy."  It's a pity
that adage wasn't remembered in San Diego.
 
By all means, feel pity for the innocent ferrets involved.  They are being
used as pawns by both sides.  But, please don't glorify, as some have done,
the adult humans involved who should have been more viligant and protective.
 
FSG
[Posted in FML issue 2738]