If you love ferrets, and especially if you own one in California, the annual yuk-fest over the prospects of legalizing them in the Golden State must make one’s head explode. The weasel jokes. The hairpiece jokes. The “Kindergarten Cop” jokes. And of course, all the grousing from the citizenry that that state has bigger problems than whether or not someone should be allowed to keep a thoroughly domesticated animal as a pet (one that’s legal almost everywhere else, mind you).
The grousers are right. The state has bigger problems. And the whole thing is ridiculous.
Legalize ferrets.
That’s my opinion. In her “Your Whole Pet” column for the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com Web site, Christie has hers, too:
They’re cute, affectionate, furry and playful. There are tens of thousands
of them in California, and they’re allowed as pets in most countries and
every state except Hawaii.
So why are ferrets illegal in California?
It’s an old story, characterized by battling sets of statistics and
interpretations of natural history. To the California Department of Fish
and Game and some environmentalists, ferrets are wild animals with the
potential to establish feral colonies and wreak havoc on native species if
they escape from captivity.
But as Jeanne Carley of Californians for Ferret Legalization has pointed
out, the ferret has been classified “as domesticated by the United States
Department of Agriculture, Smithsonian Institute, Museum of Natural
History, the Humane Society of the United States and 150 zoos, zoological
societies and other authorities.”
Which isn’t to say I think all the objections to overturning the ban are
irrational; they’re not. Environmental protection is a huge issue in
California, and the battle over ferret legalization is no exception.
It’s just that I think the fears are unlikely to become reality. And
here’s why.
The rest is here.
Update: OK, even Christie makes a ferret joke. But it’s at the Governator’s expense:
That bill was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who some thought would sign it, given that he’d co-starred with a ferret in “Kindergarten Cop.” No such luck; the governor decided giving amnesty to California’s ferrets required an environmental impact report, even though it’s hard to imagine they could ever, even in a worst case scenario, do more damage to the ecology of the state than just one of Arnold’s Hummers.
Snarky good.
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Our very, very first monthly drawing for $1,000’s worth of retail pet supplies has been made, and thankfully it doesn’t include anything for a ferret, since the winner lives in California. I’ll be in touch with B.J. Hodge of South Lake Tahoe today. The winner will be getting a $500 gift basket from Premier Pet, and will choose which animal charity gets the matching $500 basket.
I’ll have information about the May 1 $1,000 prize drawing up soon. In the meantime, sign up for the e-newsletter! It’s free, and you might win a pretty good prize.
