Archive for April, 2009

Ferrets & Swine Flu

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 4:23 am  
Comments (5)

As all ferret owners know, ferrets can catch the flu from humans and so this outbreak of deadly swine flu is really very worrying.

I would suggest that everyone takes exceptional care to make sure no one outside the family handles your ferrets and if anyone in the family has a sniffle, please keep them well away from your pets.
It’s upsetting enough to read about laboratory ferrets being infected with swine flu so that researchers can find out what is happening with this particular strain, but it would be an absolute tragedy if pet ferrets caught this flu and died from it.
I’ve listed symptoms and advice on what to do if your ferret has the flu on my site, so if worried, take a look and see what you need to look out for.
Hopefully they’ll get this under control sooner rather than later but till then, please do take care of yourselves and all your ferrets!
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Update on HR-669

Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 10:45 pm  
Comments (2)

Okay, I’ve been sniffing around trying to find out what exactly is happening with this wretched bill.  

JC mentioned in the Comments section that she spoke to a ferret rescue lady who said the bill has passed so I googled it and found govtrack.us, a website which tracks Congress.
According to the information on that site, the bill has been referred to Committee.  Now, I have no idea what happens next, but it seems to be that if your government representative is not sitting on the committee to discuss this bill, then you have no legal avenue to complain about it.
The site lists the co-sponsors of the bill, so I can only assume that if one of these people represent your state, then you are able to write to them and express your dismay about the whole thing.  It also lists the lawmakers who will be sitting on the committees to discuss this bill, so perhaps you’ll find your representative there.
Oh!  I’ve just found another site called NoHR669.com which gives you advice on what to say in a letter to your Congressman/woman, or what to say in an email, as well as all the phone numbers of the Representatives so that you can call.  
If you read the blog there, you’ll see that Adam Wysocki seems to be very upbeat about the outcome of the hearing so I would suggest you bookmark that site and check on any updates there.
Also keep an eye on the AFA site to see if they have more information about the bill and its impact on ferrets.
I don’t know if there is still a need to write to your Congressman/woman but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to do so.  However I would stress that you follow the guidelines on what to say to them so that these people will never think of us ferret owners as rude troublemakers that have aggressive animals as pets.
We all love our pets with a passion but we must never act like yobbos [a good Aussie word :) ] and be disrespectful when writing to them. 
We have to show them that the majority of ferret owners are decent, law-abiding, kind-hearted folk who just want a fair go for their pets.
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More on HR-669

Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 4:13 am  
Comments (1)

Well I checked online and came across someone who was live blogging the hearing of HR-669 so if anyone’s interested, you can read what was said on the PetHobbyist site.

There didn’t seem to be anything about ferrets in the text so I don’t know if anything was resolved about not including them in the list of animals which they are considering to be banned.
I also came across an article about the HR-669 hearing update on FishChannel.com and if you read that, you’ll see that … 
“Andrew Wyatt President of the United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) said that the hearing was a “smashing success.”

This is a preview of More on HR-669. Read the full post

H.R. 669, the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 6:06 am  
Comments (5)

I’m sure all ferret owners in the States must be in a state of total anxiety, wondering if this wretched bill will be passed by Congress.

The American Ferret Association is doing everything it can to prevent ferrets from being listed as one of the animals to be banned so I urge all US ferret owners to check out what the AFA has put on its website and also read the pdf file which advises what you should say to your member of Congress.
Today is the day that the bill is being discussed in Congress and I can only hope and pray that common sense will prevail and ferrets will be considered as domesticated animals, together with dogs and cats.
Surely they can’t think otherwise?!?!
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Ferret lovers unite, and please sign this petition!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 am  
Comments (8)

I was contacted by a Californian ferret owner who asked if I could get as many people to sign the petition that they’ve got going to get ferrets legalized in CA.
I’ve just put my name to it and hope all of you who read this blog will do so as well.  We have to show that we’re a gathering force behind CA ferret lovers.  It’s absolutely RIDICULOUS in this day and age that ferrets are banned in that state!
The petition can be found on this site.
Let’s hope we can turn the tide and feel proud that we’ve made a difference with our voices :)
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