Hello everyone, Today I'm the bearer of bad news. The crossover date has come and gone and the Judiciary Committee didn't vote on our bill. For the bill to pass, the Judiciary Committee would have had to present a favorable vote to the House, then the House would vote on the bill. This needed to happen before the crossover when House bills are sent to the Senate and vice versa. We presented our best efforts this year, and are tremendously disappointed that the committee didn't feel compelled to vote. In an ideal world, they would have time to vote on all bills that are presented before them, but it just doesn't happen that way. A 'no vote' is better than an 'unfavorable' vote, but not by much since it still means that our bill is dead for this year. We have started discussions with Delegate Cluster for the strategy for next year. He is very much on board and ACTIVE in wanting to get this important legislation passed. There will be more updates as we have progress on this front. In the meantime, we will continue to collect petition signatures online and at locations around Maryland. If you would like to help in this effort, please let me know and I'll get you the information you need. We can make this happen! Ingrid Rhinehart Secretary Maryland Ferret Protection and Welfare Society www.mdferretpaws.org Sign the Petition!! www.mdferretpaws.org/legislation/petition.html Announcements - www.mdferretpaws.org/cgi/mboard/discus.cgi [Posted in FML issue 4470]