Illegal Animals In Your State

[satomi325]

In the state of California, where my husband was born and where we have considered moving to in the future, has the domestic ferret listed as a banned species. The reason is because they do not want ferrets getting loose and forming a wild population and threaten their wildlife. While some ferrets have a wonderful hunting instinct, it is highly unlikely they would get out and form a wild population as the majority of ferrets in the pet trade are spayed/neutered. Dogs and cats pose more of a threat than ferrets in this case.

I agree with everything you said. I live in CA and own 3 ferrets. CA actually has the highest population of ferrets in the US. And 1/3 of ferret supplies in the country is estimated to be sold in CA.(They even have their own section in the local Petco/Petsmart)

They are illegal for horrible unjustified reasons.

Side info: Ferrets are 100% dependent on human care. While mine are trained to eat live prey + kibble, the majority of ferrets in the country are fed kibble. They wouldn't know what to do with a prey animal even if they some how were able to catch it w/o human aide or training.....They have the minds of a kitten or puppy. Survival in the wild is almost 0%. So going feral isn't really an option. They only feral colony in international history is said to be polecat hybrids, so that doesn't really count as being "domestic ferrets going feral". And as Jay_Bunny stated, all commercial ferrets are spayed/neutered before leaving the breeding facility to the pet store.