LA MESA, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Legalize Ferrets announces new White House petition to help legalize ferrets in California. Over the past 25 years California ferret lovers have worked diligently to catch up to the rest of the 48 continental states to have our right for legal ferret ownership.
"What is taken for granted in the rest of the world; i.e. domestic ferrets are domestic animals and present no threat to the environment has not convinced the California Fish and Game to relent on their ban or bias regarding these companion animals," says Pat Wright of Legalize Ferrets.
Despite the fact they are already here in large numbers. California has more pet ferrets than #2 and #3 states combined (New York and Texas) – The California Fish and Game Commission won't even answer our most basic questions.
Now that a WhiteHouse.gov petition is floating around and gaining some press attention. The Fish and Game Commission is not just blocking, but obfuscating our rights to have this issue dealt with.
The petition can be found at http://wh.gov/P2FB .
Prime evidence is their refusal to process a preliminary Environmental Impact Report they required way back in 2000. It was finally presented to them in 2010. Then they required a CEQA checklist which was presented to them a few months after their request/demand.
Neither document was accepted for processing. Sonke Mastrup, now Executive Director of the Fish and Game Commission said there was not enough budget or staff time to process it. We even offered to pay staff time but never received a response.
Now they are rejecting the document "too limited and not scientifically valid."
A Public Records Request act was filed on January 14th and has yet to be acknowledged. We want to know who evaluated the document and when did they do it. Most likely it has never been read by anyone at the Fish and Game Department. This is yet another example of how unfair they are.
We're not asking them to legalize ferrets. We're asking them to give the issue a fair hearing. And it's falling not on deaf ears – but on hostile ears.
Do it for the little guy and sign our petition at http://wh.gov/P2FB .
That's why a little nudge from the White House; an acknowledgment that we're being treated unfairly would be extremely welcomed by California's besieged ferret owners.
More information: http://legalizeferrets.org .
Copyright © 2013 CaliforniaNewswire® and Neotrope®. California Newswire is a publication of the Neotrope News Network and a U.S. reg. TM of Neotrope.
