canspice.org

In the November 2-4 2007 edition of USA Weekend, Steve Dale answered some questions from pet owners. One of them was from a ferret owner who recently moved to California, only to find out that ferrets are banned there. Dale’s response was as follows:

I think it’s crazy, too. Some are worried that ferrets, over time, would get outdoors and form wild colonies, like cats who get outside sometimes do. Then, to survive, the former pet ferrets would become savage and indulge in meals of endangered waterfowl. However, domestic ferrets who get lost typically starve to death. And the overwhelming majority of pet ferrets are purchased spayed or neutered, so it’s impossible for any who might live long enough to be able to find a partner and procreate.

Hawaii and California are the only states that ban ferrets. Yet no state currently has a problem with marauding colonies of feral ferrets.

I think the law banning ferrets is ridiculous, and I once proposed a solution to guarantee that any ferrets who get out won’t cause a problem: Mandate spaying/neutering (as I said before, they are usually altered anyway), rabies vaccines and microchipping (so that animal control will know who the careless owners are who repeatedly misplace their pet ferrets).

This kind of advice might work on the mainland, but it doesn’t work in Hawaii. Let’s pick apart his argument:
Dale says “domestic ferrets who get lost typically starve to death.” This means that there are some domestic ferrets who don’t starve to death.

Dale says “the overwhelming majority of pet ferrets are purchased spayed or neutered.” This means that there are some pet ferrets that aren’t spayed or neutered.

Dale then says that because of these two things “it’s impossible for any who might live long enough to be able to find a partner and procreate.” This is completely wrong. You can’t get “impossible” from two very possible things.

Dale states that “Hawaii and California are the only states that ban ferrets.” True. What he doesn’t say is why they’ve banned ferrets. Hawaii has banned them because they may be carriers of the rabies virus. Hawaii is rabies-free and we’d like to keep it that way. Further, Hawaii’s ecosystem is fragile, and given ferrets’ carnivorous diet of small prey such as birds and mice, the accidental introduction of ferrets into that ecosystem could prove to be costly to the endangered bird populations here.

So Steve Dale, when you say that the ban on ferrets is “crazy”, I think you need to think about it a little bit first. Do a little research before you write. Your careless column may only serve to weaken the efforts put forth by our state to keep our islands rabies-free and to keep invasive species off our islands.