CA UPDATE 12/22/96 CENTRAL VALLEY CALIFORNIANS-- A CALL TO ARMS!!!! On Wednesday, December 11th, the Modesto Bee Online reported that the lobbying firm, Wagerman Associates, Inc., representing the interests of Merced County, warned the board of supervisors to oppose any ferret legalization efforts. The platform adopted by the supervisors does indeed oppose such legislation because "it would create potential health hazards and increase animal control workloads.." I wonder where they got such inaccurate information! I spoke with Jan Goldsmith about this and want to relay his serious concerns to you. It is apparent that the opposition wants to fight this issue in the California's Central Valley where the Farm Bureau is strongest along with California Waterfowl. We need to address this issue immediately with local officials, editorial boards, and the boards of supervisors in this area. You should also contact your local Assemblymembers for their support: Cruz Bustamante, Chuck Poochigian, Mike Machado, are a few of the members in that area. I have already put in a call to the California Veterinary Medical Association to ask them to coordinate with us on this. If you live anywhere in the Central Valley, from Bakersfield, to Modesto, to Fresno, wherever, WE NEED YOUR HELP. You must get involved and not let the lies told about the domesticated ferret prevail. If this county board of supervisors could see how the ferret compares to other domesticated animals relative to the concerns they've expressed, they'd jump at the chance to see ferrets as a legal option to other domesticated pets. E-mail me ASAP with your name and phone number if you live in the Central Valley and are willing to help (if you live in the Central Valley and are unwilling to help, think again-- this is not going to happen in a vacuum). I absolutely need to hear from anyone and everyone in that area. Anyone that has contacts in this area, if they care about ferret legalization, should contact those people, let them know how vital this problem is, and give them my telephone number. Visit pet stores near you and enlist their help. Get them to write the newspapers, boards of supervisors, and assemblymembers. There's no reason not to begin now. We need to make a change in Modesto and to prevent such a thing from happening elsewhere. This blanket and ignorant condemnation of the very good piece of legislation that Jan Goldsmith will be introducing next year is an outrage to all Californians and especially to residents of Modesto and the Central Valley. Central Valley residents must fight this kind of misinformation, and they must do it now if we are to succeed. You all need to know that at the end of this legislative session, both Jan Goldsmith and Quentin Kopp will be out of office due to term limits. Now is the time to pat yourselves on the back if you've worked hard on this issue in the past and get ready to work a lot harder. If you haven't been involved, you must do so now. Please don't let all of the hard work by Jan's office and ferret folks not come to fruition by assuming it's just a matter of time-- take a lesson from Modesto. There are folks out there that prefer to see you criminalized for doing absolutely nothing wrong! You must be prepared to fight them and the misinformation they spread if you want to see ferrets legalized in California. The following is an op-ed piece that Jan Goldsmith wrote and I want to ask each and every one of you to send it to your local paper's editorial boards this January. Tell them to print it, that it's about time that California join the rest of the world in recognizing its citizens right to own the domesticated pet of their own choosing. No one chosing a ferret as a pet is a criminal! Jeanne Carley (415)851-3750 Californians For Ferret Legalization [log in to unmask] P.S. Please make a note of my new e-mail address, I was going to drop AOL, but the move was just too difficult and I don't want to lose anyone. You will still be able to reach me at the old address for a while. Stop Chasing Ferret Owners and Start Jailing Car Thieves By: Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith (R-San Diego) At 9:20 a.m. on Sunday, November 26, 1995, Ilona Maggard responded to a knock at the front door of her Fresno home. Opening the door, she faced five law enforcement officers armed with a search warrant. Trembling, she responded to their questions and explained that she was the only person home, her husband and children were out. The officers ordered her out of her home while they conducted a search. The search team went through everything from kitchen cabinets to the childrens' rooms, closets, sealed boxes, dresser drawers and photo albums. Although the search lasted two hours, the officers found contraband within five minutes. Ilona Maggard was read her rights, arrested and later prosecuted for possession of a ferret. Only a few months earlier, the same Fresno criminal justice system that expended resources to arrest and prosecute Ilona Maggard for possession of a ferret complained to the Fresno Bee that it did not have the resources to detain a 13 year old boy who had stolen a car. "There is just not enough space in detention facilities," explained the presiding judge. There was plenty of space for a young student named Brent Utley, however. He brought his pet ferret from Arizona to his mother's house in California where he was to attend summer school. His ferret was confiscated and he was jailed. "I loved my pet", the young man later wrote. "If you want to know how I feel, let someone shoot your family's dog, cat or horse. Then you'll know." Eleven year-old Ryan knows, having had his pet ferret confiscated. His mother asks: "Aren't there more important and sensible laws to be made than the one that robs both children and adults of a loving relationship with a harmless pet such as a ferret? Where is your heart, California?" Ferrets are small furry animals that have been domesticated for over 2,000 years. They are mentioned as pets in Aristotle's writings and Greek plays. Today, they are legal pets in every state in the continental U.S. except California. Millions of ferrets are kept in homes as pets throughout the world. Notwithstanding the ban, there are several hundred thousand kept illegally as pets in California. California's ban dates back to the 1930's when it was misclassified as a wild animal probably due to confusion with its close relative, the European Polecat. The state's Departmentof Fish and Game, however, refuses to consider legalization. Key Department administrators have made a career of battling ferrets, going so far as to circulate a report nationwide in 1988 claiming they are wild animals and calling on other states to ban them. The 1988 report was discredited as nonsense and its only effect was to prompt other states where they were banned to legalize ferrets! After analyzing the report, the Pacific Research Institute concluded that it was "full of exaggeration, hyperbole, and inaccuracies.... There is nothing more repugnant in a democracy than public officials who use public money to mislead the public." Today, many of those key administrators remain at the Department of Fish and Game supervising enforcement. They spend considerable time on a crusade to fight legalization, claiming ferrets are ferocious animals that attack children, livestock and endangered species. These, and other misrepresentations, have long been discredited by leading authorities and experiences in other states which report no serious problem. The U.S. Public Health Service describes the ferret as "docile and cat-like" and the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association reports far less bite incidents per capita than dogs. Ferrets have lost their hunting instincts and quickly die in the wild. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers it a domestic pet- not a wild animal- as do hundreds of authoritative sources including the Smithsonian Institute, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Museum of Natural History and every other state on the continent and every other country in the world. Using discredited and false claims, a few powerful Department administrators protecttheir turf without regard for the costs to taxpayers and individuals. The Pacific Research Institutes writes, "like Bill Murray who will stop at nothing short of blowing up the golf course with dynamite to kill groundhogs in the classic comedy movie Caddyshack, the Department of Fish and Game seems to be driven by an age-old grudge against the ferret." However, support for legalization is mounting.The California Veterinarian Association has joined the legalization effort. A recent Contra Costa Times editorial concluded that "there is no legitimate reason to ban ferret ownership." The 400-member San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff's Association labeled the ban "ridiculous" and a waste of crime-fighting resources. During last session, the California Assembly voted 60-7 to adopt HR 37, a resolution I authored calling on the Fish and Game Commission to legalize ferrets by reclassifying them as domesticated animals. When Massachusetts Governor William Weld legalized ferrets in 1995, he denounced the "big government" attitude that caused owners to live "in fear that an officer of the law would bang on the door late at night, grab the family ferret and arrest them." Governor Weld concluded that it was time to stop wasting taxpayer money and start respecting personal freedom. Governor Pete Wilson and Attorney General Dan Lungren can do the same for California by reining in the bureaucracy they oversee and supporting legalization. Perhaps if California stops wasting millions of dollars chasing ferret owners, we can start jailing car thieves. Jan Goldsmith Assemblymember, Poway [Posted in FML issue 1792]