Dear Jim & readers of the FML, I would think it absurd that the DFG has let loose wild pops. of domestic ferrets...like you imply it seems counter-intuitive to their mission...but then again, I am in the field of wildlife, and have heard that DFG is run by a bunch of idiots. That is what I have heard, and I have no personal experience with this, mind you! So I do not hold this view! But folks at my college say that DFG does management action and has protocol based on very wishy-washy biological information and field data. Whether this is true or not I do not know. It could be just another way for folks to complain about "us and them" and how those higher up are to blame for everything wrong in this society! Whatever the case, I do know that politics and political action gets very complicated when different agencies are involved, as each has it's own goals. If you do in fact find out that any California agency is releasing ferts into the wild, and that these ferts are establishing viable, healthy populations...then they are obviously going to displace another critter eventually...which is the argument I've heard for black-footed ferrets, but then I looked in my field guide and black-foots aren't even located on the range maps for California...so who knows...I've heard a dozen different answers for domestic ferrets being illegal in California, from a case of a child having his nose bitten off by one, to the one I just mentioned...displaced, endangered black-footed ferrets that don't even occur in Calif. and are endangered because we are killing of prairie dogs (cheif prey) in their habitats (prairie...bingo!) in the mid-west! Judging from these two distinct regions...prairies and mountains (where you say the domestics are alive and well) I really don't think they will last long in an area they aren't suited for! Surely, domestic cats and dogs have gone wild and live in the hills, but I'm not sure just how "out of control" they have become! I have heard one story by a wildlife prof. that a single, individual housecat on an island caused the extinction of a species of bird endigenous to that island...but that is another story...islands are entirely different from the large range of the black-foots! Let me emphasize my point in another manner...when you are camping, hiking, etc...I bet you see only a few different species of birds (unless you are a birder) and maybe one or two mammals...deer or other...well, ever wonder why you don't see more??? I do! Reason: They hide, they are damn good at surviving in the wild because every day could be their last...they are intuned with their senses..hearing, smell, etc...domestic ferrets are used to an environment where they are provided food, shelter, warm, water, etc...How are they going to hunt a rodent, squirrel, rabbit, etc...? Knowing my ferrets...they would chase the critters wanting to play with them! Maybe over time they could evolve with hunting skills, etc...but I think that it is highly unlikely in the short and immediete term...domestic ferrets are going to be picked off by preds. right off the bat! One careless rustle in the dark and a horned-owl has dinner! Anyway, I heard that the DFG is taking ferrets out to the shooting range and having target practice...It really seems to me that someone could document this...? I don't know, do "bad cops" really do drugs and sleep with prostitutes because they can get away with it with their authority? As I have heard, and quite frankly agree with to boot, I think that the DFG has better things to do than track down how ever many millions of ferts there are in California! Sure I want to believe that Calif. owners are safe from hastles and confiscations resulting in possible deaths of their beloved animals...but are we being paranoid here? No, says the person who spent thousands of dollars in court and had their babies killed mercillessly. I do not know what to believe. So I simply form my own comfort-zone, and try not to think about such awful things...I can't watch the news at night, or I will either get angry or depressed or both and then shake my fist at the system over and over again...or I could turn a deaf ear like so many of us...what is the truth? Is it all perception? Is there such a thing as justice? If we are letting this atrocity occur in California, The Golden State, with one of the largest pops. of folks in our country and thus representing a big chunk of the common good, then are we allowing this to happen in our own communities as a whole? Do we do the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil routine? Sincerely, David Doyle Wildlife Ecologist Humboldt State University [Posted in FML issue 1698]