Carley points out that even without the law, all ferret owners get their pets fixed. If left unaltered, males will emit a strong, skunklike scent. They came here 200 years ago, roughly about the time the ferret arrived. We apply the non-native criterion to wildlife, not domestic animals. She organizes a database of 250,000 ferret supporters in the state and lobbies the state Legislature to decriminalize ferret owners, writing letters and sending faxes supporting ferret rights.
People know in their hearts and minds that the law is wrong.
Carley herself got trapped in the weasel web after baby-sitting a friend's ferret in 1988. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that there had been a very serious injustice here in California. So she took to the streets. Carley also runs rescue operations, housing the animals that have been turned over to Fish and Game or to local animal shelters. More than 40 of these ferret halfway houses exist in California.