HR 669
There is currently a bill before Congress titled HR669 or The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act. It's purpose is "to prevent the introduction and establishment of nonnative wildlife species that negatively impact the economy, environment, or other animal species' or human health, and for other purposes." Sounds good, right?
Well if you think about it at all, you realize that almost all of our pets aren't native to this country. So most rodents, birds, fish, and FERRETS will be banned! Yes, even cute little hamsters will be illegal to own, breed, or sell.
I realize that this is years away from making it through all the stages to become a law. And even if it did pass there would be ammendments made so more than likely gerbils and hamsters would be excluded. However, if this were to be law I know that ferrets would not make the excluded list. In California it is still illegal to own ferrets despite years (since the 80's) of hard work to educate legislators. Basically it is said that ferrets will spread rabies (there's not even 1 case of ferrets EVER spreading rabies, now compare that to dogs!), will get loose and form feral colonies (99% of ferrets in the U.S. are from pets stores and already come spayed/neutered, in addition to the fact that a female ferret in heat MUST be bred or will die- hence owners having to spay, plus the fact that there's NO way any of my ferrets would surive more than 3 days in the wild!). Even though it is generally believed that ferrets have been domesticated longer than the cat, I have no hopes that the U.S. Congress knows anything about ferrets and would exempt them from this horrible bill.
