What many people seem to forget is human nature towards government regulation. Banning something makes it popular, and the more noise you make about it being banned the more popular it gets. The person on AOL might been ever more driven to get a ferret because of this little fire storm. I've heard claims that there are more ferrets in California then any other state, and thumbing your nose at the State Gov't seems to be a tradition in this state. Groups like CDFA & FA should publically advocate not bringing ferrets into California, since as I said before it is good PR. On the other hand, try to say that no one else should help a person who wants to bring a ferret in to California is bad PR. The internet community is very sensitive to attempts at censorship, and is quite likely to over react to any attempt to control the flow of information. The fact of asking people not to share certain information almost always insures that someone will. My view has always been that if you are going to bring or get a ferret in California, educate yourself. Try and contact other ferret owners in the location you live in/will live in, and find out how ferret friendly or unfriendly the locals are. As for F&G spies, there are plenty of anonymous posting and mailing services on the internet. -- Brad [Posted in FML issue 1592]