The latest from LegalizeFerrets.org View this email in your browser Vol 12 No 1 - January 3rd, 2016

<<First Name>> <<Last Name>> <<Custom1>> <<Custom2>> Happy New Year!



Welcome to our 11th year of putting out CLIFFNotes every Sunday. We've been trying to get ferrets legalized for a long time! In this issue we have an open letter to California's legislators and their staff. It is our hope that at least one will talk to us and discuss introducing our bill to legalize ferrets in California.



We've made real progress in 2015. Is it enough to get some traction? We'll find out. Dear California Legislator and staff



New Year’s brings among other things another appeal from California ferret lovers a request for a legislator to introduce our ferret legalization legislation.



We are befuddled by the fact that ferrets are legal in in every US State except California and Hawaii – that none of these states have reported any problems – and we can’t get this changed in California.



How can our beloved ferrets be house pets everywhere but prohibited wildlife in California? That makes no sense. It’s just wrong and we’re asking you to help us fix it!



A brief history. In 1933 the California Fish and Game Commission listed all members of the mustelid family, including domestic ferrets as wild, and thus illegal and no one really cared. In the 1980’s ferrets started to become popular as house pets.



The movie “Beastmaster” came out in 1982 and accelerated the trend. Since then every state except California and Hawaii have legalized ferret ownership.







A little side not here. We have added all the legislators and staff to our email list. But we won’t be sending you every email we put out. But if something happens that we’d like to share with you; our regulators – we would like to send out an email to advance our cause. Items in the past have included: The gentleman from Argentina who refused a job offer in California because he couldn’t take his ferret.

The Counsel General from Sweden who got permission from the USDA to bring his ferret into California, only to have it confiscated at SFO.

The step mother who had her stepson’s ferret confiscated upon driving into California at the border. They were driving from Quebec to visit his dying mother.

The woman in San Leandro whose daughter turned her in for ferrets and had local Fish and Game wardens search the contents of the vacuum cleaner bag for ferret poop.

The 14-year-old boy with CP in Huntington Beach who rushed home on his motorized wheelchair with his ferret in his lap to escape Animal Control trying to confiscate his ferret.

The couple in El Cajon who had their ferrets rescued by the El Cajon Fire Department only to be seized by the El Cajon Police Department. From their Website:



California has long maintained strong laws on animal importations to protect agricultural interests, public health and safety, wild populations of the imported species, the welfare of imported animals, themselves, and the natural resource wealth of the State.



California "is home to the largest food and agriculture economy in the nation" and "is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world." Therefore, the introduction of exotic, alien, or invasive species is a serious concern in California. We have seen increasing threats to endangered wildlife by the expanding population of non-native red fox in recent decades. also, recent introductions into California of detrimental animals such as the northern pike (mid 1980s), Chinese mitten crab (1993), European green crab (1989), and the potential invasion by zebra mussels, have heightened public awareness of how damaging and expensive introduced species can become.



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Please notice there is no mention of ferrets above, and ferrets are already in California in large numbers.







Me go feral? Ain't gonna happen.



Here is the Environmental Report Anything I can think of to convince you the ferret ban hurts good people. It serves no purpose and no basis in science.



It’s time to legalize ferrets in California.



We are including legislative staff in this email because we know they have a lot of clout. The last ferret bill was introduced in 2003 because a member of the legislator's staff was a ferret owner. This is an official request for you to introduce our legislation. Or at least meet with us to discuss the issue. Please send us an email to CLIFFNotes@legalizeferrets.org or call us at 619-303-0645 if we would be allowed to meet with your office. Our Amazon Affiliates Keep Those Petitions Coming!



Our goal of 91,470 signatures on the Ferret Legalization Ballot Initiative is coming up short! We're at just under 8,000 turned in or reported. So unless someone is sitting on about 82,000 signatures we're not going to make it.



But something wonderful has happened. People are talking ferrets! I wish more people were out there petitioning. Sure - I dread the part where I go into a PetSmart or Petco and tell them as politely as possible I'll be outside their store collecting signatures. Yesterday I got a GREAT reception from the manager and workers at the San Diego PetSmart on Genesee Ave in San Diego.







The people who signed usually told me they knew someone who had a ferret and how adorable it was. I only got 49 signatures in three hours. The goal is 100 but this was a new part of town for me.



I do three hours of petitioning every Saturday outside a different pet store. I have asked for help, we should have that table up six hours every Saturday and Sunday. The sad part is no one has helped me for months. And I actually have fun once the table is set up.



We have asked Assemblyman Marc Levine for a meeting. As chairman of the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee we're asking him to give us a hearing despite the fact that are unlikely to reach the signature goal to trigger the hearing.



We would like to present him with all the petition.



Please download a petition here or ask me and I'll mail you some.



We also have a Change.org Petition going on asking Assemblyman Levine to conduct the hearing. Please sign it here if you haven't already.



Petitions need to be turned into me by February 2nd.