Note: Governor Brown has a new Legislative Secretary in the last few months of his administration. She was kind enough to return a phone call and we had a nice discussion. Below is my follow up letter to her.
Graciela Castillo-Krings
Deputy Legislative Secretary
Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Ms Castillo-Krings,
I was delighted to get your call back regarding ferrets and our efforts in California.
I have made a few calls to the Governor’s office going back to the election of 2008. The only thing I ever heard back was a tweet from Sutter Brown’s account to the effect “oh, they’re still working on that?”
Meg Whitman’s campaign never bothered to respond.
It is discouraging because we want to feel as valued citizens of California.
But on to the meat of the matter – Ferrets are legal in 48 states without any issues.
The Fish and Game Commission told us in April 2000 that for them to go forward we would have to agree to fund an EIR. It took us ten years to do it. It was easier than we thought because most of the required sections were simply “not applicable.” The Fish and Game Commission did not read it until 2017 when a new administration came in.
There is some speculation among ferret owners why there has been such opposition to legalizing ferrets in California. There is a lot behind this but basically, I think it boils down to this:
It is a circular argument. The Sierra Club opposes ferret legalization because Fish and Game warns of invasive species or whatever reason (it does change occasionally). Fish and Game won’t act on legalization for fear of being sued by the “environmentalists”, which I believe means the Sierra Club.
As mentioned, Fish and Game President Eric Sklar told us to get a legislator, since legislation is not subject to CEQA.
But no legislator will touch this – and according to Rocky Chavez it has to do with what came out of Governor Jerry Brown’s office.
The election is today. We will have four legislators in office who have expressed support for ferret legalization but have not agreed to introduce legislation.
Any word from the Governor that he is open to the idea would make this possible.
I find it hard to believe that a Governor who is such an animal lover and has a “First Dogs” tab on the official Governor’s page wants to go down in history as not even giving ferrets a chance.
The ferret issue has never received a fair hearing in California. The few times it was discussed it was hijacked by personality disputes or power struggles. At the most recent effort in front of the Fish and Game Commission the audience laughed when the Commission staff referred to ferrets as “wild” animals.
I knew at that point that we would win.
We are asking Governor Brown to express an open mind and advocate a real discussion before he leaves office.
Thank you,
Pat Wright