| Law banning ferrets based on ignorance
Standard-Examiner
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Meet my legal animals. They live in Canada, the land of outdated animal-cruelty
laws and strong beer. My animals are called ferrets, and they have been
domesticated for so long that no one knows for sure where they came from.
Some say they are descended from the European polecat. Others say Asia.
But in Canada, we know they are domestic and not wild. No ferret has
ever been reported to survive in the wild for longer than a month in any
climate in North America.
As president of the Ferret Aid Society, it pains me to see such misinformation
on a governmental level (Aug. 10 news story, "Say hello to my illegal
friend: Ogden woman makes plea to keep her ferret"). You people can
send a man to the moon, but still believe a ferret is wild?
I urge your government, City Council members and animal-control officers
to do some research on the domestic ferret. They are not in the same class
as skunks, raccoons or wolf-hybrids. They have been domestic for hundreds
of years, dating back to at least the ancient Greeks, who painted them
on pottery and kept them as house pets.
Meet my legal animals. They live in Canada, where it's safe for them.
Randy Belair
Ferret Aid Society
Toronto, Canada |
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Your best bet would be to inquire at the AFA (American Ferret Association) Yahoo Group. Unfortunately there is no good reliable reference on the web, I've looked.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/AmericanFerretAssociation/
Good luck, and your family will enjoy having ferrets in their home.
Tom Kasner
It's a Ferret Life
www.ferretlife.com