>I wrote to the Sierra Club, asking if they could provide any information >on their official stance as the the legalization of domestic ferrets in >California. I wrote to both the main information address, and the >personal address of the woman in charge of the California area chapter. >The response I received was that the Sierra Club has NO stance on the >issue. I would be interested in finding out where those of you who have >posted about this in the last few days got the information... Melissa Sadly, the Sierra Club will not take an official stand on ferrets in Calfornia and they talk out of both sides of their mouth. I'm not bad-mouthing them, nor do I want to start a flame war regarding the SC. I'm simply refering to their stand on our issue and our issue alone and the political realities involved. They won't support us on this. They know that by taking a stand on this important issue, they will offend both sides of our issue. Their big concern is their ability to raise money for their coffers. I attended a political conference in Northern California a while back, and the State Political Director for the SC was in attendence. I took the opporutunity to discuss this issue with him and he flat out said the SC was opposed to "the introduction of a non-native species to the habitat here in California". Many of our members will recall the responses we received from the SC from our inquiries, such as "don't send me any more messages on this" or the best one I saw was "lose my e-mail address" The fact is, the Sierra Club of California is actively opposed to our efforts to legalize ferrets here is California, as is the Planning and Conservation League, and numerous other enviromental organizations. As long as we continue to coddle them, and send them money, they will continue to work against us and our efforts to legalize our pets. BTW- If any of you folks reading this can afford to do so, please send words of encouragement to Pat Wright in San Diego. This guy is going to the mat for all of us and the fact is, any one of us on this list can be another Pat Wright at any time. >o< [Posted in FML issue 2962]