Important Documents From California Legalization Efforts

Pet European Ferrets, A Hazard to Public Health, Small Livestock and Wildlife

Take a trip down memory lane. This document, published in 1988 by the California Department of Health Services is the "Reefer Madness" of the ferret issue.

CDFA 1990 Public Information Manual

This is the ferret legalization proponents resonse to the DHS Study above

1996 - 1997 NATIONWIDE FERRET SURVEY OF STATE WILDLIFE AGENCIES
(Includes Index B)

This is the DFG attempt to find feral ferrets somewhere in the country by contacting all 50 state wildlife agencies. Problem is, they didn't find any. The history of this study is interesting; back in 1995 DFG said California ferret owners would have to fund the study. When we balked because we don't trust this agency, they did it anyway. When they didn't like the results of their study they hid it. It was later uncovered by a Public Records Request Act.

A rating system for potential exotic bird and mammal pests

This is the study done on behalf of the California Department of Food and Agriculture to document their case that ferrets are likely to go feral, and once established as feral pests, difficult to erradicate. This study is scientifically flawed because it starts with the conclusion and works backward. In order to acheive their desired results they plugged in false (and subjective) numbers into their rating system. We have tried to get the California Department of Food and Agriculture to review this document but we were never able to get an answer.

Ferrets: A Selective Overview of Options and Issues

Study done by the California State Library on the ferret issue. After it was pubilshed DFG tried to get the author fired.

LegalizeFerrets.org White Paper

This report was done by our organization to outline our reasons why we believe the domestic ferret should be legal in California.

Reason Magazine Article on Ferret Legalization

The June 1, 2001 article does a nice job outlining the issue