Hello everyone,
As we approach the final countdown to the Assembly vote in California, any
of you who have not contacted your State Assemblyman must do it immediately.
The Audubon Society has been actively contacting other widlife organizations
looking for additional opposition to legalizing ferrets in California. I'm
continually amazed to see an organization take a stand on an issue without
any supporting data.
When I contacted one woman who apparently had been contacted by the Audubon
Society and had the good sense to ask for information via the internet, she
was astounded to learn that 1) ferrets were domesticated, and 2) that they
were strictly housebound animals and 3) that they were incapable of
surviving outdoors and 4) that our bill has a spay/neuter clause..... in
other words, the information she'd received from Audubon was, well, since it
came from Fish and Game, just what you can imagine.
Californians, we have only a few legislative days left before the vote must
happen. If AB 363 is to survive, you must contact your Assemblyman. If
you've done so already, re-contact them and let them know that the
opposition has no right to tell a citizen which domesticated pet to own and
that bills in other states had NO opposition from wildlife or farm
interests. Tell them that the Department of Fish and Game is totally out of
control on the ferret issue and has a history of lying to the public, the
legislature, and other officials about the true nature of the ferret.
If you've recently contacted your representative, please, please enlist the
help of your friends and business associates. Take your representatives
telephone/fax number to work and get those phone calls coming in. Remember
10 phone calls from one person can be dismissed, but 10 phone calls from
different people will mean something. Also, we don't know how many misled
Audubon members and Sierra Club members (the Sierra Club has a call to
action on their CA website that requests that their members call in their
opposition) are contacting their representatives.
If you've sat this whole process out, you may see AB 363 not survive to even
see the light of day in the Senate! Get involved, and get your friends and
family involved. Please make yourself a pledge to get at least 10 new
people to contact your representative in the next few days. All you have to
do is to look in the front of your yellow pages, in the blue government
pages for a listing of your State representatives. It's that eas
For those of you in the Bay Area, Bay TV, channel 35 (I believe) will be
doing a short segment on the ferret issue tomorrow morning at about 8:15 A.M.
Those of you outside CA can really help by putting pressure on the Audubon
and Sierra Club National offices as well as the CA offices. It's absolutely
insane out here where black is white and up is down as far as ferrets are
concerned. And not just Californians pay the price, you do too. You are
not welcome here is the message!
With all of the pressures here, I've still been following the KODO saga and
can only keep a candle of hope lit in my heart for him. If reason prevails
in Michigan, it will hopefully send a message to California that when
ferrets are legalized, shed time known or not, reason shall prevail in bite
instances or there will be similar action taken.
Best wishes to us all in the coming days.
P.S.
L.I.F.E. has a new ferret news service that I think is very worthwhile.
It's called the Independent Ferret News Service and you can subscribe by
e-mailing [log in to unmask] with the message: subscribe ferretnewserv
If we all stay informed on major issues, we can fight for what's right for
these little guys.
Jeanne Carley
Californians for Ferret Legalization
410 Mountain Home Road Woodside, CA 94062
(415) 851-3750 <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.ccnet.com/~beisners/gsfs/lobby.html
CALIFORNIANS, YOU CAN FIND OUT YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBER AND STATE SENATOR BY
VISITING THIS SITE!! IT'S TIME TO CALL AND WRITE YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBER--THE
FLOOR VOTE WILL HAPPEN SOON!
[Posted in FML issue 1948]
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