Ferret busts in California depend on a lot of factors.  You have to remember
that California is bigger then many countries, and offical attitudes towards
ferrets can vary from location to location depending on the whims of local
animal control, district attornies, and regional branches of the DFG.
 
Some areas of California seem to have local or state officals who just plain
hate ferrets or ferret owners, and will go out of their way to not only find
ferrets, but to seek heavy fines for owners.  In an other area local
officals might not care, and state officals might have other fish to fry.
 
One thing to remember is to keep track of local and state officals (DA's,
judges, sheriffs, etc.) who are anti-ferret, since odds are these people
will either run for public office or be appointed to an office that requires
legislative approval.  That is your chance to speak out aginst this person
for wasting tax dollars on ferret hunts.
 
Although the general public might not care about the rights of ferret
owners, they may not approve of limited law enforcement dollars being used
against ferret owners by people leading agencies not directly linked to
animal law. Judges are often subject to periodic voter approval, and in
off year voting turn out can be very low, and even a small oppsition group
could cause problems or force a candidate to send large sums of money.
 
If you are afraid of retaliation from speaking out against anti-ferret
officals, then find another issue where people oppose them that person, and
offer your support.  An offical petty enough to go after ferret owners is
petty enough to annoy other people for other reason.
 
Personally I've had little problem with having my ferrtet in California
until just recently.  Twice I was verbally harassed by animal rights
fanatics (who seem to believe that killing ferrets is less cruel then living
with them).  Recently a neighbor of mine threaten to turn me in to animal
control after I opposed her attempts to force a local business to close
early (the women is considered a neighborhood gagdfly).  The rest of
neighbors (mainly dog owners) rallied to my aid, and made it quite clear to
her that she was considered way out of line.  People called her up and
chewed her out.  I told my neighbors that I gave my ferret away, while I
modified my windows so people can't see in.  My neighbor has found that
suddenly almost no one will speak to her.
 
I have found that dog owners are generally good allies against nasty
neighbors, since the sort person who will harass a ferret owner is likely to
also harass dog owners, and most dog owners know what how it is to be
treated like a 2nd class citizen because of their choice in pets.
 
Brad
[Posted in FML issue 1692]