Strangeblue on 1/4/2006 at 20:02
Yeah, yeah, hobby-horse time.
I got at note from (
http://legalizeferrets.org/) these guys today.
I simply cannot believe that ferrets are still illegal in California and that it's taken 15 years of struggle to get close to getting them off the "bad critters" list. It's the only state other than Hawai'i that still bans them. It's just ridiculous. They don't carry diseases, they don't spread rabies (except under one very rare condition and the ferret rabies vaccine was proven effective years ago), they don't establish and breed in the wild and they don't attack people. And contrary to what some silly people have said, they don't eat babies. Unless you mean baby birds in eggs and only if they don't have to work too hard to do it (lazy fuckers.)
The Sierra Club and Audobon Society have invented nightmare scenarios in which packs of feral ferrets will establish in the wilds and destroy endangered birds and habitat. This is a critter that can't find it's damn dish if you don't show it where it is! This is an animal so domesticated that it's chance of dying in heat, breeding, or pregnancy would make a Third World vivisectionist blanche. Mine won't even eat anything that didn't come out of a bag labelled "Eukanuba" and their idea of a long trek is twice around the block and "pick me up, mommy." Sheesh! Fat chance of this bunch becoming the scrourge of the environment. Not to mention that with an estimated 150,000 of them living in California right now, you'd think a few would have escaped and wreaked havoc by now, but has there ever been a documented incident of feral ferrets doing damage to anything in California in the past 100 years? No, there has not. Not one. Not one rabies transmission, not one wild bird kill, not one chicken coop raid. One supposed "ferret attack" on a baby in New York was later proven to be rats. I can't say they wouldn't hurt a fly--because mine love to eat flies if they can catch them--but they're pretty benign.
And Cute!
Inline Image:
http://www.katrichardson.com/pix/YoungTaz.jpgI mean, c'mon... this is wicked cute.
I was born in California, I grew up there, I lived there until I was 29. My family still lives there. I have to visit there frequently. And yet it's the only place on the continent I can't take my pet with me. This is just stupid. I can have a dog and I can take it on a plane and get off in California and so long as I have a paper that says he had his shots recently, that's OK--even though the dog may dig holes, run free, attack humans and property, and develop several nasty diseases it can pass to other dogs and non-dogs. But the ferret has to stay home, because... umm.. well,... because it's a ferret and someone at the California Department of Fish and Game long ago decided it was "wild".
Seven-hundred proven years of domestication is not "wild," folks. Some historians and zoologists estimate the domestic ferret may go back 1200 years or more. Some strains of cow haven't been domesticated that long, but you don't see people saying you can't have them in California--unless they have Mad Cow and that's not the poor cow's fault.
I want my ferret legalized, damnit! Get on the stick, Californians! Legalize them ferrets! I want to bring them with me on tour.
oudeis on 1/4/2006 at 20:16
l hear bill clinton once smoked ferret, but he didn't inhale.
aguywhoplaysthief on 2/4/2006 at 04:21
It doesn't look cute, it looks like it's angry.
At me!
:eek:
Aja on 2/4/2006 at 04:26
If a ferret gives you an angry look, is that conside
User banned: 1st Apr 2006 at 9:29 PM.
Gingerbread Man on 2/4/2006 at 04:55
peeps f34r the w3453l. it is only natural
Fig455 on 2/4/2006 at 09:29
I have 5. Got them published in a magazine and Rueben won Cutest Ferret.
Dia on 2/4/2006 at 14:13
We had three and called them our 'Stinkykids'. We'd have Stinkykids time every night; they're far more entertaining than anything on television! Unfortunately, ferrets don't live much beyond 7 years and we really couldn't stand the heartbreak (all three died within 8 months of each other) so we never got another. I won't go into a pet store if I know they have ferrets there because I'd just break down and cry. I miss them all tremendously and wish I wasn't such a wuss about losing them.
I could never understand this stupid ban on ferrets! It would make more sense to ban hamsters, gerbils, or guinea pigs. Not that I want to see that happen either, since we've had those fuzzy little critters as pets at one time or another as well. I read somewhere that if left unchecked, a male and female hamster could produce 100,000 offspring in one year; their first litter would produce so many and then that litter would produce so many more, breeding with the first litter, etc. Somebody in CA. definitely has an unreasonable issue with ferrets. Ban him instead.
Thelink on 2/4/2006 at 14:26
My Chibi is cuter, and she's already legal. :thumb:
Inline Image:
http://blueewe.typepad.com/photos/our_pets/lala9504.jpgMind you just because every parent thinks their kid is the cutest, doesn't mean that I'd be exempt.
Also doesn't mean it's not true. :devil:
LesserFollies on 2/4/2006 at 19:27
I have a ferret niece and a ferret nephew, and they're lovely little fur tubes. I think we should establish N.O.R.F.L. I've heard anecdotal evidence about the efficacy of medicinal ferrets; we can start there.
