I have my doubts as to whether any pet store ferret could survive in the wild long enough to start killing birds anyway.

Honestly if the remote possibility that a ferret might be capable of killing native wildlife is enough of a threat to ban them, pet cats should have been banned long ago. We KNOW cats kill birds and small wild animals. We KNOW that unneutered cats easily breed in the wild, producing feral colonies. The cat is a bigger threat, but the ferret takes all the blame. But this is kind of how it works with banning domestic animals in general—it’s always stupid and full of double standards.

In Australia, ferrets are banned in Queensland and the Northern Territory — both these states have cane toads jumping around, poisoning native fauna, as well as crocodiles munching on native fauna but for some bizarre reason they seem to think that a pet ferret, which escaped from a house, would somehow be a threat to native fauna.

Granted it’s fairly cool in SE Qld but everywhere else is hot and humid and an escaped ferret would surely die if it got out in that climate. That is, if it wasn’t killed by a king brown (one of Australia’s largest poisonous snakes) first!

The way to make an innocuous person or thing into a dangerous one is by driving it underground.

multiply 10-15 dollars times 10 to 15% the number of ferrets ALREADY HERE (compliance is not likely to be better than it for dogs) and you could still bring in a chunk of change for municipalities or F&G if they still want to maintain “control”

sorry I had to laugh at my last line there. A quarter of a million or more ferrets already in California, yep, the ban sure is working….

:)

Legalize ‘em.

And this is, in addition to the real differences in the ecological circumstances, is a major point of disagreement. You think that people should have to make the case that owning pet ferrets is “crucial.” Most Americans think that, if you want to ban something, you should have to make the case for banning it. And make it with facts, not assumptions and must-bes and the belief that everyplace is essentially the same.

I live in a densely populated city in Massachusetts. Despite the dense human population, we have coyotes, redtail hawks, and oppossums in the immediate area of my house. What’s the bigger threat to smaller mammals and birds in this area, do you think—the coyotes, hawks, and oppossums that are out there hunting every day, or the possibility that someone’s pet ferret or pet cat might escape? In New Zealand, the impact of cats and ferrets on the native wildlife was due, in large part, to the fact that they were a whole new cateogory of predator that the native fauna had never evolved to cope with. In North America, mammalian predators in that size class, and larger and smaller, are all over the place. Cats and ferrets, when they do escape, are prey as well as predators.

This is a very different situation.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferret

Where ferrets coexist with polecats, hybridization is common. It has been claimed that New Zealand has the world’s largest feral population of ferret-polecat hybrids. In 1877, farmers in New Zealand demanded that ferrets be introduced into the country to control the rabbit population, which was also introduced by humans. Five ferrets were imported in 1879, and in 1882-1883, 32 shipments of ferrets were made from London, totaling 1,217 animals. Only 678 landed, and 198 were sent from Melbourne, Australia. On the voyage, the ferrets were mated with the European polecat, creating a number of hybrids that were capable of surviving in the wild. In 1884 and 1886, close to 4,000 ferrets and ferret hybrids, 3,099 weasels and 137 stoats were turned loose.[10] Concern was raised that these animals would eventually prey on indigenous wildlife once rabbit populations dropped, and this is exactly what happened to New Zealand bird species which previously had no mammalian predators.

And as for Marshall Farms, I don’t Like them.

Owner of 2 fun loving ferrets - Abby and Little Boy

I understand people differ on this but the fact is pet ferrets are not 100% neutered and they do escape—in fact they are better at escaping than most other pet species which is why I quite undeliberately ended up with several that I found will tramping. So it comes down to weighing the value of people having ferrets as a legal pet option against the potential for environmental damage.

I don’t see that it so crucial to have ferrets in California. That’s just my take on it. Other people no doubt think having a ferret is more important but it must, logically, be at some risk to wildlife even if it is only a small one.