Defeat (for now) in Massachusetts by Beau Bannerman The struggle to legalize ferrets as a companion animal in Massachusetts is essentially over for another year. The bill which would have legalized ferrets was sent to the Animal Studies Group and cannot be acted on again this year. The most positive thing that can be said is that we went further than ever before, and that the light is visible at the end of the tunnel! The drive began in early January when I found out that there was a bill sponsored in the State Senate. I quickly got my hands on a copy of it, reviewed it myself, and then asked the opinion of Thomas French, Assistant Director for Nongame and Endangered Species at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. It was our concurrent opinion that the bill, while having the right intentions, was lacking in thoroughness. Mr. French had written a comprehensive draft of a ferret bill several years ago, but had been told not to release it to the legislature by the previous director of the DFW. After a bit of jockeying I secured permission for Mr. French to release the draft. I brought this draft to the couple who had written the pending bill and Senator Buell, the sponsoring senator. I had little trouble convincing them that Mr. French's draft should be presented at the Natural Resources Committee hearing as the redraft of their original bill. The redraft allows the possession of neutered ferrets without a permit. It requires breeders to pay a $500 tri-annual breeder's permit and the breeders would be subject to frequent inspections. Ferret owners are also required to possess certification of annual vaccination against rabies and canine distemper and that the ferret has been neutered or spayed. From late January until the hearing, April 16, I actively sought support for the bill. I received invaluable support from Fara Shimbo, John Armshaw, Bill Phillips, and Mary Van Dahm of FURO, Pam Grant of Pet Pals, Chip Gallo of the AFA, and Dr. Marshall of Marshall Farms. This support ranged from Public Information Manuals to informative letters addressed to the Natural Resource Committee to fantastic advice! During this time I also contacted the Animal Rescue League of Boston, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the Massachusetts SPCA to try and convince these long time foes of ferrets that they were misinformed. The MSPCA would not budge from their position, but both the Audubon Society and the Animal Rescue League of Boston chose not to come to the hearing and that was a major success. The MSPCA position against the domestic ferret was founded on the feeling that ferrets would be mistreated in pet stores and that they would be bought on impulse and that Massachusetts' shelters would be overrun with unwanted ferrets. They chose to ignore the letters which contained the testimony of Pam Grant and Mary Van Dame to the contrary. The hearing was held before the Natural Resource Committee at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on April 16. The hearing was set up so that those in favor spoke first and then those in opposition. There was a three minute maximum for each person to speak. The Natural Resource Committee listens to testimony and later, in executive session, decides whether or not the bill should be sent on the the House and Senate. If they decide to send it on, the House and Senate votes on the bill, and if it passes, it is sent to the Governor for him to sign. If the Committee decides against sending the bill to the legislature, it can either kill the bill outright, or send it to a studies group for the year and receive a report on the subject the following year. The speeches in favor of the bill began with the couple who had written the original bill. They stated their support of the redraft which I was to submit to the committee. I then submitted the redraft and used my three minutes to explain it briefly and state some important facts about ferrets. The next speaker was the Director of the DFW. His support was a major breakthrough because the DFW had never supported a ferret bill before. Next was the Senator Buell who simply stated his support for the redraft and his wish that ferrets become legalized. The remaining speakers in support were composed of several pet store owners, a representative from PIJAC, and several individual citizens. Next came the opposition. The major players were the MSPCA and the Humane Society. They both stated their opposition (and thus the implied opposition of the large number of people that they supposedly represent.) Also, a number of researchers, under the mistaken impression that the bill would not allow them to possess unaltered ferret, spoke against the bill, but most also stated their support of ferrets as a companion animal. Included in this group was Dr. Fox of M.I.T. I spoke to their group after the hearing and informed them that the redraft has specific language in it allowing for research to continue under present guidelines. They volunteered to write a retraction of their opposition. The remaining speakers were individual "activists" who expressed their opposition to pets in general. The only other speaker of note was the last person to speak, Bruce White. He introduced himself to the Committee as the Northeast Director of the Black-footed Ferret Fund; a member of the MSPCA, the Humane Society, and the Animal Rescue League of Boston; a board director of the Animal Rescue League of Fall River; and the Director of the Michael J Alfonso Ferret Rescue Center. What he forgot to mention was that he also runs the United Ferret Organization and the Ferret World mail order company. He stated to the committee that he was in favor of legalizing ferrets, but that the original bill was not comprehensive enough and that he hadn't seen the redraft. The weekend before the hearing I had driven 200 miles roundtrip and had spent 3 hours reviewing the redraft at Bruce White's home. It was a major shock to see him speaking in opposition and extremely disheartening (to say the least!) to hear the lies he stated before the committee that hurt ferret owners everywhere. It should be also noted that Bruce White is the only private citizen in Massachusetts that has a permit to own ferrets. Permits to own ferrets in Massachusetts are only granted to established research and educational institutions. Through the Animal Rescue League of Fall River he established the Ferret Rescue Center (which receives confiscated ferrets and places them out of state) and thus was able to obtain a permit. With this permit, not only is he able to run the Rescue Center, but he is also able to keep any number of ferrets as pets (and he had a whole slew of pet ferrets running around his house.) While we were unsuccessful, this was the first ferret bill that the DFW spoke in support of, the first ferret bill that wasn't killed outright by the Natural Resource Committee, and it was the first ferret bill that the Audubon Society and the Animal Rescue League of Boston chose not to speak against. All that we have left to go on for the rest of the year is to petition the Governor to introduce ferret legalizing legislation directly to the legislature. Other than that, all we can do is refile the bill for next year. [Posted in FML 0162]