About a year ago I made a few postings regarding my discovery that ferrets
were illegal in the City of York, a division of Toronto.  In fact, according
to the city By-Law, almost all pets except dogs, cats and rabbits were
illegal.
 
To make a long story short, the by-law has finally been changed, and another
Ferret-Free Zone bites the dust!
 
Actually, the by-law as it reads now is quite interesting, as it lists the
animals which are now prohibited ("No person shall...keep any of the
following:") in some detail, where before it just said "...or any other
animals." The by-law now lists some 15 types of domestic animals, all
livestock, and about 30 types of what they call "wild" animals.  This list
includes things such as: (exact spelling as printed in the by-law)
 
Artiodactylous ungulates
Cetacea (such as dolphins, whales and porpoises)
Edentates (such as anteaters, sloths and armadillos)
Elephants
Hyaenas
Perissodactylous ungulates
Pinipedia (such as seals, sea lions and walruses)
Primates other than humans
Spheniciformes (penguins)
Urcids (bears)
 
And a lot of other stuff is listed.  When I picked up a copy of the by-law
at the city Animal Control office, I read the list and joked "Damn, now I
have to give up my dolphins", and the person at the office told me not to
laugh - they actually had dealt with a person who was keeping a pet dolphin
in a large tank in a 12th floor penthouse apartment!  I was so stunned I
didn't ask if the dolphin was still there or had been rescued.
 
Also on the banned list are a few surprises, as they are fairly common pets:
 
Arachnids (such as tarantulas and scorpions)
Chinchillas
Erinaceus (such as hedgehogs)
Marsupials [there go the sugar gliders...]
Snakes of the families Pythonidae and Boidae
 
Most of the list does make a lot of sense, and prevents people from keeping
local and exotic wildlife as pets, so it's a heck of an improvement from the
old by-law.  At least now, small rodents, birds, and lots of other common
pets are legal.
 
Anyways, as for ferrets, the bylaw prohibits "Mustelids (such as skunks,
weasels, otters and badgers), except the domestic ferrett (sic) and later
goes on to add that "No person shall...keep: (c) more than two (2) ferrets."
I think that the intent was to have no more than 2 ferrets per home or
(dwelling unit), but it's a bit ambiguous and if you read the letter of the
law strictly, as there are 3 of us "persons", we could have up to 6 ferrets,
so our 4 are OK.  Dogs, cats and ferrets are tho only pets which are
restricted in number (oh, and pigeons).
 
Stan, Terrie & Jen, with Mookie, Psycho, Cecil & Cocoa in Toronto
[Posted in FML issue 1566]