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 They live in Canada, the land of outdated animal-cruelty laws and strong beer.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