I'm going to get this out quickly and move on.  I agree with Rebecca Murdock
and others on this.  We already have clubs and groups that handle show
standards and such.  What is needed now is an organisation that brings are
lovable fuzzies up to the same or higher level than the dog.  We need some
political clout to get legal issues changed in our favor.  These horrible
things happen because nobody sees a ferret as a loveble family pet, but as
some strange, exotic, wild animal.  Now, dogs have got the status of "mans
best friend" and that makes people think about a dog as very close to human.
Even though there are several times more dog bite incidents in our country
than ferret bite incidents, no one would dare think about taking an eight
year old's puppy away and killing it because it bit someone at the vet.  And
why not?  Because the dog is mans best friend, and has been thought of as so
for hundreds of years.  They too started off as hunting and protection
tools.  But then, very influetial people, even royalty, started keeping and
breeding them as companion animals and started a tradition of prestiege
associated with owning and breeding dogs.  This is how it all starts.  We
want are pets to have the same legal status as dogs.  To get that we need
political power of our own.  How do you get political power?  The same way
politicians do.  You convince a large group of people to support you by
telling them just how much better you are than anybody else.  Then you hire
lobbists to tell the bigwigs how big your group of supporters is and how by
helping your group get what they want, they increse their own group of
supporters.  To sum up, Good Image=Political Power=Legal Change.  I am
willing to support this effort in any way I can.
 
CHERYL
[Posted in FML issue 1976]