Our inaugural court date is scheduled for August 16th, 2024, at the downtown San Diego courthouse. In preparation for this pivotal event, our aim is to compile a comprehensive binder brimming with pertinent facts, correspondence, and documentation to fortify our case.

1. Minutes from April 6th and 7th, 2000 Fish and Game Commission meeting. They were hearing and debating an appeal from the Californians For Ferret Legalization to legalize ferrets. Most important for us, this comment: THE COMMISSION ALSO DIRECTS THE CALIFORNIANS FOR FERRET LEGALIZATION, AS PROJECT PROPONENTS TO FUND THE PREPARATION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT TO COMPLY WITH THE PREPARATION OF THAT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT TO COMPLY WITH THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT. Tens years later we commissioned that study at Sacramento State University and it took another ten years for the Fish and Game Commission to read it.
2. A response from the Department of Fish and Game to a Public Records Request Act asking for records on ferrets and predator risks. They were unable to locate any records.
3. At the top of our list is the exchange between us and the Fish and Game Commission, particularly noteworthy for its implications. Following the Fish and Game Commission meeting on May 20th, 2023, Eric Sklar, the Commission’s president, chastised ferret advocates for their reluctance to finance an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), despite our repeated offers to do so. We promptly reached out, and their response indicated that the staff would provide a more detailed reply at the earliest opportunity. However, since then, silence has been deafening. This exchange serves as compelling evidence of the Commission’s lack of sincerity in their engagements with our cause.

New Zealand Tab. Our opponents will undoubtedly refer to New Zealand “ferrets.” New Zealand imported a lot of ferrets, polecats, weasels and stoats to combat a rabbit infestation. New Zealanders refer to one pest as ferrets, but they are actually mostly of polecat origin. We would love to have DNA testing to prove that. But in the meantime, we have these reports:

1. Pandora’s box down-under: origins and numbersof mustelids transported to New Zealand for biologicalcontrol of rabbits
2. Founder events, isolation, and inbreeding: Intercontinental genetic structure of the domestic ferret
3. Observations on the Polecat in New Zealand – Charles McCann