Hello everyone, Yesterday the Department of Fish and Game sent the following letter to the author of our bill, several of our co-authors and to Assemblymember Carole Migden. "The Department of Fish and Game (Department) appreciates your interest in the issue of ferret legalization and your recognition of the need for a thorough environmental review prior to such legalization. As you know, the Fish and Game Commission in April 2000 indicated its willingness to consider ferret legalization upon the submission of such a report. SB 1093 would appropriate $250,000 from the General Fund for the purpose of conducting the ferret environmental impact report (EIR). Although we support the preparation of an EIR, we believe it is inappropriate to use General Funds for this purpose. A more appropriate source of funding for this EIR is the ferret advocates and the pet industry that are pushing for legalization. This would ensure that the people most interested in ferret legalization, rather than the general taxpayers, fund this effort. For this reason, the Department is opposed to your bill in its current form." David Bunn Director of Legislative Affairs ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is absolutely outrageous and is designed to make sure that ferret legalization goes nowhere! There is NO MONEY for such a study from ferret folks and they know this. DFG also knows that the pet industry hasn't funded any of our bills in any way. They have never signed up an author, ferret supporters did that. They've never paid for mailings, we have! In fact, under amnesty they wouldn't have seen any change in their profit margin because ferrets wouldn't be sold here! DFG has continued to try to portray this bill as something it's not and it's up to you to show the Governor and your State Representatives that this isn't a question of profit but of basic fairness, and your right to choose your own domesticated companion animal! I urge all of you to sit down TONIGHT and write a letter to both Governor Davis AND to both of your State Representatives letting them know that to hold owners or folks who want to own this gentle domesticated companion animal hostage to an expensive environmental study is WRONG. As your friends and neighbors to write as well. Even if you have written before, write again, NOW! Let the Governor and your State Representatives know that ferret owners in this state should be decriminalized for doing something that is legal in every state on the continent! You MUST write these letters! Do not let this outrageous position go without comment. I know there are some of you who don't think your letters count but they can and they do if you write them. There was a banking privacy bill by Senator Speier that was DOA in committee UNTIL the public wrote in about it and the bill was resurrected!!! Your letters count, but not if you just think about it or assume someone else will write. They only count if you write them!!!! To write to the Governor, write to: Governor Gray Davis Governor's Office State Capitol Sacramento, CA 95814 To write to your State Representative visit our website and click on "Know Your Local Representatives". Enter your zip code and you'll be told who represents you. Jeanne Carley Californians for Ferret Legalization 410 Mountain Home Rd. Woodside, CA 94062 (650) 851-3750 www.ferretnews.org [Moderator's note: Unofficial editorial on. And what about CA F&G's *own* study which they supressed because the study couldn't show ferrets were be a threat? The way I understand it, the study's already been done -- get another one done and F&G will object to the method. So they'll do it themselves and the results will never be made public. No thanks... "we don't need no stinking study". Or however that goes. Unofficial editorial off. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 3518]