Thanks, Donelle, for your question about IL.  Honestly, I don't know how
autonomous the local departments in IL are; didn't do that call myself.  The
only way to know for sure is to ASK your own state authorities.  EVERY STATE
VARIES -- some have a slightly longer quarantine for any type of animal than
is in the compendium (The sort of thing which is in the noise such as 2
weeks rather than 10 days as in Connecticut.), some have different rules for
vaccinated versus unvaccinated, some have to follow incredibly long and
complicated procedures to change policy while others can do it easily, some
have no autonomy for local departments while some have full autonomy, and
others have something inbetween.  If you can think of any variation, I
probably heard from one state vet, "Oh, I couldn't IMAGINE any place doing
that", only to hear from another that it's EXACTLY what that person's state
does.
 
EVERYONE: CALL YOUR STATE PUBLIC HEALTH VET OR EPIDEMIOLOGIST IN CHARGE OF
RABIES POLICY (In a few states this is actually handled by other departments
but the Health Department can direct you.) AND ASK!  Of course, we already
KNOW that California -- as the ONLY state (of over 30) which replied with a
point-blank no-quarantine-till-more-studies-are-published letter is a lose
for at least a while.  Yes, there have been some states which have been
verified by people here such as VA (Pam T.  and Lisa) and N.J.  (myself),
and Vesna's state (Wisconsin?  -- can't get to my files right now), but few
people have done this and it's essential to protect your own ferrets.  Then,
PLEASE, send me the results and POST THEM TO THE FML.  There are a lot of
conflicting reports out there.  Dick said that one newspaper in his state
reported that only four states are going with the Compendium change (How's
THAT for completely incorrect?) so he needed the actual letters to use for
helping N.H. attachment to an amendment.
 
So far, copies of the letters which were sent by state vets (not all
replied) have gone out to some folks who are on the FML including Troy Lynn
(Who wrote me that her copies have arrived.), Jeanne Carley (Ditto.), Pam
Troutman (not arrived as of yesterday), Dick Bossart (too early to have
arrived), and will go out to Kym who will be doing a web page with the info
(Will send either before I leave for Florida if we can get the time to make
some more copies, or afterward if we can't.), and one copy will come to
Florida with me for all there to see.
 
Dick Bossart wrote that the N.H. effort is running into a problem with the
amendment to protect N.H. unvaccinated ferrets because another group wants
to also have the attachment that shelters will microchip all animals and
this could cause economic difficulties for ferret shelters, so the two
groups are in conflict.  He also wrote that:
 
>Bob L'Heureu (sp) has been knocking himself out trying to find a bill
>that's a probable winner, and contacting the sponsors of that bill for
>permission to ride it as an amendment.  I've been helping where I can, but
>it's been mostly him.
 
Troy Lynn is working with others to write legislation for Kansas.
 
I heard from someone who is interested in pursuing legislation in West
Virginia (where the known autonomy of the local departments makes it
necessary) and passed on info which could help, but have not heard back from
the person; I suspect that the topic is being investigated and unless the
person finds it daunting there will at some point be a public call for
volunteers in that state and for the clubs to work together.
 
Florida is pursuing legislation as per the recent FML reports.
 
Did I miss anyone?  It's easy to do, especially since I never expected to be
following legislative efforts as well.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2191]