Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that cats have ravaged the wild bird population in Hawaii. That’s not an argument for allowing ferrets, though, and is actually an argument against allowing ferrets, because they show what can happen if a carnivorous species is let loose.

Neutering animals is fine and dandy, but let’s be realistic: people are lazy and won’t get their animals fixed. We have friends with cats that we’ve offered to take to the vet and have them fixed at our own expense, and they’re too lazy to let us. Sure, there are responsible owners out there who get their animals fixed and give them the full range of shots, but responsible owners are few and far between.

“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.”

Err yes. However Hawaii does allow people to own dogs and cats even though they can carry rabies. People can bring them here provided they are vaccinated and clear quarantine. Why not ferrets?

“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.”

This from a cat owner? Outdoor cats and mongooses have already taken care of the bird population in Hawaii.

The problems are not ferrets per se, they are the fact that agencies cannot be bothered to deal with non dog-and-cat pets (in fact in administrative language the word pets often is taken to be identical to “dogs and cats”), so have blanket rules instead of specific ones. California has huge land borders with ferret-allowing states, and banning responsible ferret ownership does indeed strike me as silly.

Another example of this is that it is illegal to let a rabbit set foot on the ground in Hawaii. Yes, it is to stop us turning into Australia (laudable goal) but instead of having a specific rule for breedable rabbits, a person’s spayed geriatric paralysed bunny can get shot if its owner allows it to sun itself on a bit of lawn.

Fundamentally, most agencies would not even consider there can be such a thing as a neutered rabbit or ferret or (insert other non-mainstream pet here). Both Hawaii and California could make exceptions for animals with a veterinary certificate stating they cannot breed.

It’s nice to have grand concerns for the ecosystem, but it usually just boils down to the fact that the dog and cat lobbies are much bigger it’s not politically expedient to stand up to them. Otherwise Hawaiians would be out there shooting cats.