About a year ago I made a few postings regarding my discovery that ferrets were illegal in the City of York, a division of Toronto. In fact, according to the city By-Law, almost all pets except dogs, cats and rabbits were illegal. To make a long story short, the by-law has finally been changed, and another Ferret-Free Zone bites the dust! Actually, the by-law as it reads now is quite interesting, as it lists the animals which are now prohibited ("No person shall...keep any of the following:") in some detail, where before it just said "...or any other animals." The by-law now lists some 15 types of domestic animals, all livestock, and about 30 types of what they call "wild" animals. This list includes things such as: (exact spelling as printed in the by-law) Artiodactylous ungulates Cetacea (such as dolphins, whales and porpoises) Edentates (such as anteaters, sloths and armadillos) Elephants Hyaenas Perissodactylous ungulates Pinipedia (such as seals, sea lions and walruses) Primates other than humans Spheniciformes (penguins) Urcids (bears) And a lot of other stuff is listed. When I picked up a copy of the by-law at the city Animal Control office, I read the list and joked "Damn, now I have to give up my dolphins", and the person at the office told me not to laugh - they actually had dealt with a person who was keeping a pet dolphin in a large tank in a 12th floor penthouse apartment! I was so stunned I didn't ask if the dolphin was still there or had been rescued. Also on the banned list are a few surprises, as they are fairly common pets: Arachnids (such as tarantulas and scorpions) Chinchillas Erinaceus (such as hedgehogs) Marsupials [there go the sugar gliders...] Snakes of the families Pythonidae and Boidae Most of the list does make a lot of sense, and prevents people from keeping local and exotic wildlife as pets, so it's a heck of an improvement from the old by-law. At least now, small rodents, birds, and lots of other common pets are legal. Anyways, as for ferrets, the bylaw prohibits "Mustelids (such as skunks, weasels, otters and badgers), except the domestic ferrett (sic) and later goes on to add that "No person shall...keep: (c) more than two (2) ferrets." I think that the intent was to have no more than 2 ferrets per home or (dwelling unit), but it's a bit ambiguous and if you read the letter of the law strictly, as there are 3 of us "persons", we could have up to 6 ferrets, so our 4 are OK. Dogs, cats and ferrets are tho only pets which are restricted in number (oh, and pigeons). Stan, Terrie & Jen, with Mookie, Psycho, Cecil & Cocoa in Toronto [Posted in FML issue 1566]