Dear anonymous FML reader: Your aunt's problem is not uncommon, and is a terrible situation that can be blamed pretty squarely on the shoulders of the California Dept. of Fish and Game. <Everybody who has heard this story time and again in this forum can feel free to skip ahead if they wish....> What can she do to change the law? Individually, zip. BUT: There is a movement afoot to change the law. There are two organizations (that I am aware of) working (sometimes together) to fix the law. The "California Domestic Ferret Association" and "Ferrets Anonymous" are doing their best to get the prohibition repealed. Thanks to Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith (San Diego) and Senator Quentin Kopp (San Francisco) <round of applause for the pair> a bill was introduced in Sacramento last session that would have changed the law. It was doing OK until Willie Brown decided that he had a grudge against Jan Goldsmith and shot the bill down. That's politics sometimes.... (Gotta remember that we need ALL their support in the future.) Well, the bill will be introduced again in the next legislative session, and from what I have heard (granted, everybody wants to be a prognosticator) there is general good feeling that it may be passed--there is a good deal of grassroots support for the bill. (Normally I hate the term "grassroots") So what should your aunt do? Well, I would say she should just go ahead and smuggle her ferrets in--but there ARE border checkpoints in California, and there is a chance (couldn't tell you what it is, but it is NOT insignificant) that they would be caught and confiscated and possibly/probably killed. If she wants to be sure that they have long and healthy lives, she should probably give them to a good home, and perhaps if the ban is repealed in the next year or two she could go and retrieve them. What she should most DEFINITELY do is to join Ferrets Anonymous and the CDFA and lend her support to the campaign--the momentum is there, and this may be the year the ban is overturned. Here are some addresses: California Domestic Ferret Assn. P.O. Box 21040 Castro Valley, CA 94546 (510) 886-4210 Membership: $25/year sugg. Ferrets Anonymous P.O. Box 3395 San Diego, CA 92163 (619) 497-1084 Membership: $12/year sugg. If she needs any more advice, feel free to contact me--I don't have a ferret myself (because of the #%$@!&@ ban!!) so I don't have to be anonymous. Hope she finds a course of action she is comfortable with. Good Luck! James Grove 1430 Nye St. San Rafael, CA 94901 [log in to unmask] May the CDF&G wake up with a mountain lion in their shorts. [Posted in FML issue 0972]