Vol 5 No 20 - May 16th, 2010

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Show your support for ferret legalization by joining the 3000 Club. We formed as a way for people to publicly support our efforts.
Do it for the little guy!

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Ten Newest Members of the 3000 Club

933. Vlad, san diego, CA
932. Deb's Ferret Rescue & Boarding, New Era, MI
931. akm325, Boston, MA
930. Dustin S., Los Angeles, CA
929. batmom1947, Chula Vista, CA

928. ratmaven, Tualatin, OR
927. Dizzaholic, San Jose, CA
926. Soni Pari, Somis, CA
925. Brad Rushing, Shadow Hills, CA
924. YarnFerret, Paramount, CA

Six new members this week

Readers Column

Fauxbie (cinnamon) & Stella (white) checking out my aunt's Mother's Day gift, lol.

Lori L.

Welcome to California!

Just thought I would pass on some information about a VERY lax agricultural checkpoint. I have homes in both Los Angeles and Arizona, and travel back and forth between the two states almost monthly. I have passed through the AG station in El Centro easily 50 times, and every time it is so casual that's almost laughable. My husband jokes that the state seems to be paying their employees to kindly wave to people as they enter California. There is rarely any traffic there, and the officers just stand in their air conditioned booths and let everyone on through.

On my latest trip, this last weekend, I tried out my new iPhone and took video as we rolled on through. (I uploaded the video to YouTube as an "iPhone test" so as not to put up any red flags). If you enlarge the video, you can see that the woman inside the booth is actually reading a magazine, and not even watching the cars. This particular checkpoint seems to be looking only for those who might be smuggling illegal immigrants and/or drugs. If you appear to be a "typical American" in a nice car, you're in. I have several times taken my cat through this checkpoint, and they have waved me through with a visible pet crate in the back seat. Also worth noting is that this particular station is often unmanned on Sundays, and always closed on major holidays. If you drive through here on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, etc., it's guaranteed to be unmanned.

Here is the video:

Kathy V.

Adoptions

I am in dire need to find 3 of my ferrets a new home. I am losing my house and can’t take my ferrets with me. They need to go to a home together…..2 males are 4 years old and 1 female who is 2 years old. They are very well mannered and get along extremely well. Let me know if you can help.

Respectfully,

Brenda

If you can take in and provide for these three please send in an email and I will forward it to Brenda. These ferrets are in Santee.

And two more ferrets...


Yogi	Penelope

Yogi and Penelope, each about 3.5 years old (and siblings). Yogi is sable and Penny is silver (or, was silver at birth – now mostly white with just a bit of silver). They both had adrenal surgery about 3 or 4 months ago. Yogi had both adrenals out and is on medication for life; it’s very important we find a good home for the twins given this circumstance – missing medication is life-threatening. The medication isn’t terribly expensive (we get it through Avian & Exotic), but has to be administered twice a day and that can be a pain.

You may recall that I contacted you about finding a new home for these guys given that we are likely to be moving to the Middle East in a month or so. It’s still possible that this relocation may all fall through if compensation comes back in writing other than as described verbally; but for now it looks highly probably that we’ll be out of here in a few weeks. If the deal falls through, we are quite attached to our ferrets and would keep them, but I really doubt that will happen at this point.

Jason C

These two ferrets are in San Diego. If you are interesting in applying please send me an email and I will forward it to Jason.

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Joe Ferret For Governor?
...Well, Maybe...

Click above to be a fan of this very important FaceBook page.

Not much in the way of communication with ferret owners from likely Gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown (Democrat) or Meg Whitman (Republican). Charlotte did get a response from the Brown campaign:

I am high school science teacher, 26, female with a Masters in Pharmacology. I am looking to move back to California where my fiancee (also in education) and I both have friends and family who want us home. However, I currently cannot bring my enthusiasm and passion for teaching to California as we have 2 pet ferrets which we could never leave behind. They are both neutered, friendly and pose NO THREAT to people or wildlife. It saddens me that ferrets are not legal in California, and I wonder how many other professional people have been forced out of California due to this law. I would love to move to California and I ask you to consider legalizing ferrets (perhaps we could have licenses and neutering could be compulsory).

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this situation and will share your ideas of how best to move forward with my friends and family.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email and thank you in advance for your response.

Sincerely,

Charlotte D.

The Brown campaign responded with:

Dear Charlotte,

Thank you for your email. It is important for us to know what issues Californians are concerned with. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to email us about legalizing ferrets in California. I have forwarded your email to our Policy Director.

I hope you can support Jerry in the future.

Regards

Lila

Please continue to ask Jerry and Meg - What do you think of those California ferrets? and forward any replies to us. Please remember to be nice (I know, it isn't always easy) because one of these two may have a ferret legalization bill on their desk.

Meg Whitman for Governor
20813 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Suite 150
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408)400-3887
Support@MegWhitman.com

Jerry Brown 2010
291 3rd St.
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 628-0202
info@jerrybrown.org

But what if we don't hear from either of these candidates? An interesting idea was put forth;

Since none of the Gubernatorial candidates will support legalizing ferrets for CA (note - so far). I am going to initiate a write in ballot candidacy for the June 6 primary. I am voting for Joe Ferret! Anybody else care to join me? Republicans have a Candidate choice to make but since Brown is running unopposed on the D ticket, it won’t “cost” you to join me. I think it will be a great way to get their attention and give them a good way to let them know we are totally serious & we vote.

Marylou B.

Joe Ferret- Gubernatorial
Candidate?

Hopefully sometime after the primary one or both candidates will have given a more substantial answer. If not, it might be fun to launch a write in campaign for the November election. It would be a perfect example of how the "little guy" is pretty powerless when it comes to California politics, which is all based on special interest and fraught with deceit. Non-ferret owners can relate to this.

Of course we couldn't qualify Joe Ferret as a "write in" candidate - he doesn't meet the qualifications to hold office. His votes wouldn't be counted. But if we can't get an answer from Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman (or Steve Poizner who I don't think will win, but I've been wrong before) this might be a media-genic and fun way to go.

I maybe stepping over board (again) but watching the Whitman/Poizner debate was a sickening experience. Neither would discuss how to fix California's problems, it was all about what was wrong with the other person. Reminded me of a couple of school yard brats. This will be the first election in my lifetime where I won't vote.

- Will the EIR Study Be Done Sooner Than Expected?

Word from Dr Graening (our EIR Researcher at Sacramento State University) came in;

"the 50 state survey is winding down; we’ve about exhausted our chances of getting more responses;

the lit review is continuing; and we’re well into our way of writing the final report."

All fifty states and ten Canadian provinces have been surveyed on the question do they have any problems with domestic ferrets. 3 out of 4 reports have been completed, the third report just came in last week. The only negative was one state reported the possibility of feral ferrets but further research will clear that up (it didn't happen). The literature review means going through all those anti-ferret studies and debunking them - that sounds like much more of a challenge to me. But we are on our way.

This is so important. We will have completed studies to give the Brown and Whitman campaigns (ok, just maybe the Steve Poizner) campaign - plus all candidates for state assembly and state senate.

We did hear from the Senate Natural Resources Committee that only a legislative act can legalize ferrets, not just an EIR, but I'm not convinced. In any regard, we are no where without the EIR.

We raised $1,186 in contributions for the EIR last week (thank you everyone!) - so we will still need to pay for the 4th qtr (our share is $1600) and the actual EIR will cost an additional $7,000.

We're Making A Video - Need Help in the Ideas Dept.

Todd Dayton of Fallout Pictures

Our contact is signed and a $500 deposit has been paid to Todd Dayton to make a video of California ferret owners in conjunction with our September 25th "Legalize Ferrets Revival."

Our contract with Todd states:

"LegalizeFerrets.org will be responsible for developing and presenting and outline and/or script for the video."

¡Hay Caramba! I don't know anything about that. Is there anyone out there with these skills who'd like to be on the video committee?

On the Subject of the Legalize Ferrets Revival

September 25th from noon to 8 pm at the Holiday Inn in Concord. Details will be firmed up by July 1st - a program will be printed August 1st.

Speakers so far include Bob Church, Dr Rene Gandolfi and Jeanne Carley. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman have also been invited. If we don't hear from them - maybe Joe Ferret will make a surprise appearance.

We are looking for items to raffle off and items for gift baskets. If any of the commercial people receiving this email would like to donate, we'd love to hear from you! If anyone has any ideas to make this the best ferret event ever, please send in your suggestions!

Northern California Ferret Alliance To Be At Redwood City Pet Parade

I wanted to let you all know about the annual Redwood City Pet Parade. It will be Saturday May 22 in Redwood City, Ca. For more information on the event please go to http://www.redwoodcity.org/events/Pet_parade.htm and you will see times and exact location. The Northern California Ferret Alliance will have a booth there. We hope to educate the public about ferrets as pets, their current illegal status, and maybe even find some new members. If you can make it out the event is really fun for everyone. Although pets are welcome to come please do not bring your ferret. We also could use a few more volunteers for the day event if it's just for a few hours. If anyone is available please let me know. And for more information please contact me or come to our SF meeting this Thursday 5/13 at 7 pm at IHOP.

Kimberly B

In Conclusion -

Things are heating up as we finish the report needed to file the EIR and our statewide elections get underway. We could have some very exciting news in the Fall. We've sure had our disappointments - I think we are ready for some successes!

Please get on board our FaceBook campaign regarding Jerry Brown. We simply have to be on their (candidates) radar screen. There are too many of us to be ignored.

Fundraising is going to have to pick up as we still have to pay the last EIR quarter and then the actual EIR itself. Kind of scary in this horrible economy. But I know there is a lot of determination. We won't allow this opportunity slip by because of a lack of money.

I am so excited about the LegalizeFerrets revival. I think there is going to be a lot of energy and excitement. Don't you dare miss it!

And I'm still trying to nail down a date for the calendar photo shoot. We're trying to get Jamie K to do it again - I forget how much work she put into the last one. The theme so far, well think of "ferrets make me happy." Send in your story and photo for the calendar's thumbnail photos - here is an example:

I have two of the best ferrets in the whole world. I spend all day with them playing and giving kisses and belly tickles. They are my life. My ferrets keep me calm in moments of stress, all I have to do is look at there adorable little faces and my heart melts and so does my stress. They are the sweetest, cuddliest creatures I have ever known.If I didn't have them in my life I would be so sad. I love my ferrets so much.

Serina W.
member 756

We reserve the right to edit - but you get the point.

Pat Wright
CLIFFNotes@legalizeferrets.org
619-303-0645

Lance M.
FA Phone: (949) 303-8481
President, Ferrets Anonymous
Founder, Orange County Ferrets
CEO, California Domestic Ferret Educational Alliance
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LanceM_FA
Web: www.ferretsanonymous.org

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