Why are ferrets illegal in California?

Answer 1

BRENT F is the only one here who hit the "nail on the head" with this one. Making domesticated (YES, domesticated...for thousands of years by the way.) illegal is irrational and ridiculous. It is ridiculous for more then one reason and would take me forever to explain.

For the record ferrets are not "wild animals", they do not "kill for the sake of killing", and they are not "smelly weasels."

Ferrets have been domesticated for thousands of years...most will hunt and kill mice but no longer instinctual know how to kill for food. Also...a domestic ferret killing a prairie dog? LOL A domestic ferret is probably 1/2 the size, if not smaller, then a prairie dog. Anyway...ferrets are only smelly when things are not kept clean and also are not a weasel.

Answer 2

there is no scientific reason for it. In 1933 ferrets were mistakenly put on the prohibited wildlife list when DF&G was formed. Other states made this mistake and over time, have rectified it by removing the Domestic Ferret from the wildlife list. Why not California? It pretty much boils down to the fact
that they don’t want to admit they are wrong and they get a lot of money by being wrong. Sierra Club, Audubon and other organizations, for whatever reason, keep pumping money to California DF&G for keeping ferrets illegal. Never mind the fact that they never spoke up in other states where ferrets were illegal (Massachusetts comes to mind). To keep ferrets illegal, DF&G has come up with a number of reasons over the years. No rabies vaccine, a lie which was answered by a lawsuit by the makers of Imrab, no distemper vaccine, which has since been taken off their list of excuses, violent towards
children, which is backed by California Health Services, (wonder where New York city got their ideas), and of course the "fact" that ferrets can go feral. So what if DF&G can't
find a real source to back up these “facts”? They make one up of course! Easy to do when you are getting all sorts of money to keep ferrets illegal. So why doesn't anyone see through these tactics? Well, unless you have taken the time to actually verify DF&G claims, you wouldn't necessarily know since technically they are supposed to be telling the truth. Granted it doesn't take too long using the internet to verify some of their "claims" but for some people (those overseeing DF&G) this is still too long.

Answer 3

I think that the governor wants an environmental impact order done before they are legalized as house pets. In short, he wants to know what kind of risks if any ferrets will be on the state environmentally. However, I think there are half a million pet ferrets in California and it isn't illegal to sell ferret food and/or toys for ferrets!

Answer 4

I would assume it's because the black footed ferret has been killing off the prarie dog population out west. Ferrets are carnivores and WILL kill for the sake of killing, so if you have an endangered animal and ferrets are a threat, you try to keep that animal as far from the endangered ones as possible.

I know the ferrets you're talking about are pets, BUT...many species of animal have been introduced into areas they are not native to, because pets have accidentally gotten loose and multiplied. They can cause a lot of damage to the native species, so states tend to be very cautious about allowing non native species in.

Answer 5

They are still classified as wild animals in Cali.
People believe that they will be abandoned and/or get free and damage the ecosystem.
They site the millions of stray dogs and cats that breed and fill shelters. They don't want the same problem with ferrets.

Answer 6

try illegal California ferrets?

Answer 7

Because they are dirty stinky weasles