I'm pleased to pass along word that Gaston County, North Carolina, has lifted their prohibition on possessing, selling, and distributing ferrets! The County Clerk kindly faxed me a copy of the revised ordinance, and I've scanned it and put it on our local club's website at: http://www.trifl.org/politics.html PLEASE NOTE that although ferrets aren't "banned" any longer, there are now some interesting restrictions. For example, rabies vaccines are *required* annually as is annual licensing through Animal Control within 3 days of vaccination time. The license must be displayed on the ferret's collar whenever the ferret is off the owner's property. Also, you CANNOT carry your ferret in your arms in public or even take him out on a leash even if *muzzled* (it really does say that); the fuzzy must be fully enclosed in a cage or carrier. Anyway, there ya have it! It's a big step forward. The stuff on that web page is for now limited to images of the faxed pages; I do plan to get a text version up there when I can. Last time I checked, the official County's website (www.gastongov.org) wasn't updated with the revised Ordinance yet, but they have said it will be soon. Best wishes to all, -Pam S. [P.S. at 17:26:] Whoops, two addendums: >The license must be displayed on the ferret's collar whenever the ferret >is off the owner's property. It's also OK if the owner has possession of the license. :-) >Last time I checked, the official County's website (www.gastongov.org) >wasn't updated with the revised Ordinance yet, but they have said it >will be soon. It's still not up there, but they've changed domain names are are now at http://www.co.gaston.nc.us/ This'll teach me to post all in a rush! -Pam S. [Posted in FML issue 3377]