Can We Get 500 People to do This?

Everyone knows a domestic ferret is not a wild animal.

But this label is a solid obstacle in legalizing ferrets in California as legislators and regulators have repeatedly told me, “if the Fish and Game Commission calls them wild animals that’s good enough for me.” End of discussion.

Our Regulation for Petition Change will be discussed at their next meeting:

October 9-10, 2019 (we won’t know which day until the agenda is published)

Rincon Government Center
One Government Center Lane
Valley Center, CA 92082

A CALL TO ACTION

We have a petition in front of the Fish and Game Commission and I’d dearly love it if you would email the Commission your support for our request they do not refer to domestic ferrets as wild animals.

1. Simply send an email to fgc@fgc.ca.gov
2. In the subject line please put “Petition 2019-18”
3. Please Support Petition 2019-018, domestic ferrets are not wild animals

COMMENT DEADLINES
Written Comment Deadline for this meeting is 5:00 p.m. on September 26, 2019.

Please have your supporters include “Petition 2019-018” in the subject line. We receive a lot of comments on many agenda items so it helps to quickly sort and send comments to the appropriate staff.

Also, please note that comments are “public” documents and a representative group will be published for all members of the public to see. Here are the details:

1. Person or organization requesting the change (Required)

Name of primary contact person: Pat Wright
Address: 4515 Panorama Dr, La Mesa CA 91941
Telephone number: 619-757-7426

Email address:  CLIFFNotes@legalizeferrets.org

2. Rulemaking Authority (Required) – Reference to the statutory or constitutional authority of the Commission to take the action requested:  It is unlawful to import, transport, possess, or release alive into this state, except under a revocable, nontransferable permit as provided in this chapter and the regulations pertaining thereto, any wild animal of the following species: Mammals of the orders Primates, Edentata, Dermoptera, Monotremata, Pholidota, Tubulidentata, Proboscidea, Perissodactyla, Hyracoidea, Sirenia and Carnivora are restricted for the welfare of the animals, except animals of the families Viverridae and Mustelidae in the order Carnivora are restricted because such animals are undesirable and a menace to native wildlife, the agricultural interests of the state, or to the public health or safety.

3. Overview (Required) – Summarize the proposed changes to regulations: Domestic ferrets do not belong on a list of wild Animals. It is 100% inaccurate and makes any chance at legislation unlikely.

4. Rationale (Required) – Describe the problem and the reason for the proposed change: Ferrets are domestic. Other organizations and elected officials are using this classification: that the California Fish and Game Commission (The “Experts”) classify domestic ferrets as wild animals as their justification to support a continued ban on a domestic animals.
   The Fish and Game Commission is using objections by “environmentalists” as a reason not to act on reclassification, but the Sierra Club is using Fish and Game’s classification of domestic ferrets as being wild to continue their opposition to ferret legalization.

We have been in front of the Fish and Game Commission many times before. Obviously without success. The last time we got this:

After this position was announced several members of the audience broke out into laughter at the idea of domestic ferrets being labeled as “wild animals.”

Two days later Eric Sklar, the Commission President called me to say that he doesn’t care if people have ferrets or not, that they can’t move forward. For them to do so would require a full blown EIR and not only would it be in the $600,000 range, afterwards we’d all be sued by “the environmentalists.” He told me to find a legislator because legislation isn’t subject to CEQA.

But as we have discovered, no legislator will introduce a bill, and the one thing we hear is “if the Fish and Game Commission classifies them as wild animals, they’re the experts and I’m not going against them.”