I am writing to ask if you would please run the Ferret Story by John
Blackstone.  We here in California are facing an incredible battle with the
Department of Fish and Game and it continues to just get worse!
 
I don't know if you are aware of the facts, but California is now the only
state in the continental U.S.  where domestic ferrets are illegal.  There
was a law in 1933 that let people have neutered male ferrets, but DFG got
that thrown off the books.  Now, anyone caught with one of these adorable
pets is subject to fine and the animal is confiscated and in many cases if
we can't arrange for a way for the poor little thing out of the state (via
underground railroad) it will be destroyed.
 
The domestic ferrets are tame, eat mostly cat food, play well, bite rarely
and in most cases have been vaccinated against everything -- even more so
than dogs or cats.  If a domestic ferret got out of a house, it would die in
two days.  They don't forage, they don't know how to protect themselves from
bad weather (that's up to the owners) and almost all have been neutered so
there's no worry they'll over breed.
 
DFG wants an environmental impact study done now that will cost the
California taxpayers a lot of money for nothing once again.  I don't know
why DFG is fighting this so hard.  The domesticated ferret is not a wild
animal, could never be one and therefore should not be any of their concern
in the first place.
 
It is estimated that there are about a half a million ferrets living in
seclusion in California with their owners, people like you and me, risking
criminal charges to have them.
 
If you can help at all in this, please do.  You can contact DFG directly and
perhaps they'll tell you their objections to these marvelous creatures.
 
Thank you.
 
DeBorah Eaton Sherman
[Posted in FML issue 1648]