Rabies policy and pet policies are often separate things, in two separate
departments.  In one state there are three departments involved since two
separate ones handle animal to animal rabies as opposed to animal to person
or person to person risks.
 
How the state deals with rabies depends on that given state.  Way back when
the Compendium changes were first drawn up I got in contact with the health
dept.  of every state and somewhere beyond that :-) .  Some states have
rules and regs which put the policy of the public health vet experts of a
given department in charge -- so other depts.  must follow those policies.
Other states have a great deal of autonomy among the local departments.  In
fact, for a few they don't have to do what the state says at all.  (In some
instances this is to the point where one state health dept.  official -- I
won't say which state -- said to me that he didn't know what they'd do if
they ever had an epidemic of ANYTHING in that state because there is no
authority at all.)
 
Even in some cases where the local people must follow state policy there
have been cases which required legal challenges when local people refused.
In those states as far as I know the local areas which went anti-ferret
dropped the cases (or lost them) when realized who would be testifying
against them.  At least, I haven't heard of a case where anti-ferret locals
won over the state experts, but I sure have heard of it getting to the
point where it got into court or almost got there.
 
It would be best if people followed-up with their OWN State Public Health
Vets in Charge of Rabies Policy for ANYTHING related to rabies policy!
Call your health dept.  and play musical phones for a little while (It's
typically not too bad.).  Then find out what you state RULES AND REGS and
LAWS are.
 
If you do an FML search you'll find some OLD info on this topic.  There is
the problem that in a few cases the state vets thought they had a great
deal of power because they PERSONALLY were held in such high regard, but
that power did not hold with their successors when they retired, so some of
the states later did not have the strong protection first stated, but that
danger wasn't made clear at that time.
 
What DOES supersede negative local departments (and state departments if it
comes down to that anywhere) is state LAW -- an actual LAW passed by the
legislative branches and signed in (or with veto overridden).  That means
that in states in which there is local autonomy, or states which might at
some point have a state public health vet who doesn't bother to go by
facts, DO have a way to get around bad policy but it's not an easy task by
any means.  Ask people like Dick Bossart, Fran L'Heureux, Diane Rogers,
Jeanne Carley and others -- some successful and some not yet successful --
who know what it is like to tackle laws that allow certain pets or create
certain rabies policies.
 
Oh, BTW, the Compendium is in THREE parts so be SURE to copy all three!
[Posted in FML issue 2912]