At 2:00 AM -0400 10/26/99, Aunastasia wrote: >I asked why Dept of Fish and Wildlife still has any say, since >ferrets are now officialy pets and fall under the domestic pets, >rabies rules It's not an aspect of human health (which falls under the auspices of the Public Health Veterinarians in charge of Rabies Policy at the Health Dept.), but an aspect of how they might affect the local wild mustelids if they became as common as dogs and cats (which could result in a number being turned loose) which falls under the control of Fish, Game and Wildlife. Because of this my personal hope is that when they finally do reach the point of being officially classified as "domestic" that they do require licences; that over-seeing does help reduce the number of animals turned loose to fend for themselves and to then die horrific deaths while possibly also infecting the local wildlife. (Yes, it still happens but in lowered numbers.) FG&W KNOWS that no feral ferrets exist here and that such colonies just don't have a history in the US (except PERHAPS on one NW island where there had been a report, though it was never substantiated that those actually were ferrets and they did die off rather quickly -- and for which they have all the professional contact information in their extensive files thanks to Troy Lynn's efforts), but there is always the possibility that if a lot were released the sheer numbers might have a negative impact, or that diseases like ECE might be caught by the wild population since there certainly are diseases every year which jump species. We have several types of weasels here, mink, otters, some martins have begun re-establishing (Yippeeeeee!!!!! We've even seen same.), and there are the occasional fishers found (though those could just be wanderers since not enough found to know for sure -- though years back one showed up in southern NJ with the tag of a research project tracing the population in Northern NY)! You can see why they want to be safe. Imagine killing off a wild population with ECE due to folks letting ferrets go. Sadly, it could possibly happen without some controls. They are classified as "Exotic Pet Species" not "Domestic" in NJ due to such concerns. [Posted in FML issue 2847]