I've already sent BIG a personal note disagreeing with his feeling that
yesterday's poster was not ferret related.  If he's willing to reconsider a
little, perhaps this will be posted!  I'm always interested in legal issues
that pertain to ferrets or parallel progress we'd like to see made for
ferrets in other companion animals such as cats or dogs.  I didn't find any
info at the website provided yesterday, but the following definition of
"companion animal" is taken from the text of the bill as provided at
http://assembly.state.ny.us/cgi-bin/showtext?billnum=A08338
See the links at the bottom of the page to read the vote record, etc.  The
definition certainly makes it sound as if ferrets would be covered.  Go
check it out!
 
""Companion animal" or "pet" means {a} ANY dog{,} OR cat, {or} AND
12  SHALL ALSO MEAN ANY other domesticated animal normally maintained in or
13  near the household of the owner or person who cares for such {dog, cat
14  or} other domesticated animal.  "Pet" or "companion animal" shall not
15  include a "farm animal" as defined in this section.  "
 
Debra
 
[Moderator's note: Debra sent me a very polite and well-reasoned note
expressing her opinion (thank you, by the way) and to some degree I agree
with her.  The tricky part from my end is deciding where to draw the line.
There are SO many animal-related issues worthy of attention -- if they all
made it into the FML this list's focus would no longer be ferrets!  If an
issue comes up which could have a clear and direct affect on ferrets, even
if ferrets aren't specifically the focus of the issue (as in the animal
protection bill mentioned above), I probably would indeed let it through.
But it's something considered on a case-by-case basis.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2723]