Hello everyone, HSUS attitude was just one of the factors, including time, space and new faces, involved in the change of HSUS position on ferrets, but anyone that says it's "real" easy to explain, but wasn't there to see it, clearly doesn't know the whole story. Martha Armstrong told me she opposed legalization in MA when there wasn't an exclusion keeping pet stores from selling ferrets. We didn't want HSUS oppositon in CA, and it wasn't "easy" to keep them from opposing our bill because our bill also did not exclude pet store sales of ferrets. It took a lot of work to convince Martha to not oppose the ferret bill in CA including asking the then head of the California Animal Control Director's Association, Pat Miller, to call her. That's actually when the CACDA board first voted to support our efforts. Also, plenty of folks opposed to these changes at HSUS were still around and even attended the meeting including the infamous Rachael Lamb and Michael Winikoff, West Coast Regional Director for HSUS, (he literally led the vociferous anti-ferret HSUS voice in CA at DFG and State hearings). In major bureaucracies a new person doesn't just waltz in and change everything in one fell swoop when the "underlings" have been allowed to run rampant on an issue. That's where gentle communication and data production are critical to bolster the support for the newcomer and provide them with information that can be used to sway, educate and eventually, if necessary, dominate the underlings. That is just part of what went into this meeting. I doubt most of the participants would describe the change in HSUS as that "easy" to explain, otherwise, there would have been no need for the 8 or ten of us to travel to HSUS to meet with Martha (not to mention the tons of phone calls beforehand). If she could have just changed HSUS position on ferrets unilatterally, she would have. Jeanne Carley Californians for Ferret Legalization 410 Mountain Home Road Woodside, CA 94062 (415) 851-3750 <[log in to unmask]> http://www.ccnet.com/~beisners/gsfs/lobby.html CALIFORNIANS, YOU CAN FIND OUT YOUR ASSEMBLYMEMBER AND STATE SENATOR BY VISITING THIS SITE!! IT'S TIME TO CALL AND WRITE YOUR SENATOR--THE FIRST COMMITTEE VOTE WILL HAPPEN SOON! [Posted in FML issue 1978]