I received the following email from FurpeopleWeyr :

> Hi Dianne.
>
>I'm just curious about the official reasoning behind the no importing
>of ferrets. In California the official line is they may escape and
>establish a feral population negatively affecting the local flora and
>fauna.
>
>Hawaii puts a kabosh on lots of things because of its island status
>and they don't want to risk things like rabies and other diseases. I
>suspect that may be the case for Australia?

My reply was unable to be delivered so, just for information, it is
set out below:

Hi,

Yes, the main reason is to do with diseases ferrets can carry .....
Australia is also an island and other than distemper we do not have any
known contagious diseases here .... no TB, Rabies, ECE, Aleutians, etc.
and for the good of all it is better to try & keep it that way.

Dogs and cats still have to be quarantined for many months before they
are cleared to come in, but, as you are probably aware, even if a
ferret has had successful Vet treatment for ECE then that ferret is
still a "typhoid Mary" or carrier of the disease so it would never be
safe to bring it into contact with other ferrets, let alone find out
too late what it might do to other species. What we find so very odd is
that people can come & go without any health checks, but animals have
to be quarantined :-)

As in California, it is illegal to own ferrets in two States of
Australia (Queensland & Northern Territory) for exactly the same
reasons as California give ..... the silly thing is that, because our
climate can be so very harsh, it would be rather short of a miracle for
any ferret to survive long in the wild here. Can't talk to Governments
on this, they speak a different language. It would also be a miracle
for one ferret escaping into our wilderness to find another
unsterilised ferret of the opposite sex to even begin populating the
countryside let alone escape being eaten by foxes, wild cats, etc once
they were out there. Also, as in California, we do have ferrets &
ferret owners and we also have Vets in these States to treat them
should they be needed, although to keep a little anonymity on this
they advertise their practices treat "long tailed guinea pigs".

We know how hard it is for people wanting to come to Australia
permanently to have to re-home their beloved ferrets, but at least we
are able to warn them before they come rather than have them arrive &
have their pets put to sleep. It is once they are settled here we find
out who the really passionate ferret people are when they come to one
of our Ferret Clubs to adopt new babies because they miss them so much.

Thank you for your interest and hugs to you & yours.

Dianne.

[Posted in FML 7476]