Legislation

Sign the petition to support the Ferret Protection Act HERE!

State Legislation

Did you know that besides the animal cruelty statutes, there are no laws governing the husbandry and sale of ferrets in Maryland? Did you know that there is no minimum standard of care expected from the companies that provide us with the pets we come to love? How do you feel knowing that the big 'ferret farms', and pet stores can completely focus on their bottom line instead of providing us with a pet that is mature enough to become part of our lives for many years? MD Ferret PAWS is working to pass legislation to change this. The main ideals of our legislative efforts are:

• A ferret should not be neutered/spayed until 8 weeks of age.

• A ferret should not be separated from the mother/litter until 10 weeks of age.

• A ferret should not be shipped until 7 days after altering.

PAWS believes that by following these general statements ferrets in Maryland will have a chance at healthier, happier lives.

It is an unfortunate fact that ferrets are surrendered to shelters or outright abandoned. Two of the bigger reasons are behavioral problems or medical problems that are too expensive or too complex for some ferret owners to solve. When these pets are given up, it creates a burden on society as our communities must either find new homes for the animals, an expensive undertaking, or destroy them, an option that most of our citizens find revolting. Our efforts can help gives the animals a head start at staying in the home before they even get there.

Ferrets are intelligent animals and behavior can be modified, although not easily, even in later years. However, between the ages of 8 to 12 weeks, much of a ferret's core behavior, what it eats, litter training, and how it socializes is imprinted. Ferrets learn from imitating the mother and the imitation becomes habit, or the 'right way' to do things. Right now those important weeks are usually spent in the pet store. Most pet stores in Maryland have no inkling of the proper way to cage a ferret. There is no reasonable expectation that the stores or employees could possibly educate the kits properly. The kits can pick up bad habits that are hard to shed, like nipping, which is a big reason that uneducated ferrets owners give up their pets. If we can keep kits out of the pet stores just a few weeks longer, it is hopeful that they will have the chance to mature a little with their littermates and be better pets when they are first bought.

A better pet is also a healthier pet. Ferret kits come into the pet stores at the age of 6 to 8 weeks, usually already neutered/spayed and descented. This not only has immediate impact, but also can have long reaching effects. In order to reach the stores at this age, the kits must be surgically altered at 4 to 6 weeks of age; some may even have their eyes forcibly opened. At this time kits are just a literal handful, and are gaining weight and growing at a rapid pace, the stress of a surgical procedure is too harsh on their young bodies. On top of this there may be no rest period in between altering and shipping, no chance to heal from incisions. We hope that by waiting 7 days a kit will have at least a minimal recovery. It is unknown how many kits are lost at this stage to the larger ferret breeders; the information is not public. One problem that can develop, and is frequently seen in pet stores, is a prolapsed rectum. This condition causes bleeding, infection and most probably pain for the young kit. A simple consequence? A normal reaction to pain in any animal is aggressive behavior. Further complicating the matter is the passage of undigested food. Until 8 or 9 weeks of age a kit has 'milk teeth'. These teeth can not properly chew adult ferret kibble that is fed to them in pet stores. When the body can't break it down it is passed partially undigested, hard on the intestines and doubly hard on a ferret with rectal problems.

The real danger of neutering/spaying a ferret so young may not be seen for a couple of years. This is the great unknown about the quality of pet the bigger companies are selling. The number one surgery on ferrets in the United States (besides neutering/spaying) is for adrenal disease. Adrenal disease is not prevalent in other nations where ferrets are kept as pets. The most common type of adrenal disease is hyperplasia caused by overstimulation of the adrenal glands. The most common solution is surgery, which usually costs between $300 and $700 without extra care. An estimated 32% of ferrets in the U.S. will require treatment for this disease at some point. It is a very real possibility, as suggested by a study at the Animal Medical Center in New York that adrenal disease can be caused by early neuter/spay in ferrets. The underling clinical reason is that the adrenal glands are forced to produce gonadal hormones to compensate because the body has been altered well before sexual maturity. Since sexual maturity is reached somewhere between 16 and 24 weeks of age, waiting until 8 weeks of age is still early in the development of the kit, but is immensely better than 5 weeks as is commonly done now.

The way ferrets are produced and sold in Maryland needs to change. We want a minimum standard of quality from ferret breeders. Returning them to the store after a bond has formed is not an acceptable option. As a community we do not want to have the burden of unwanted pets. As a society we have a responsibility to practice the most ethical and humane husbandry that we can.

Let Maryland lead the way

News and updates on our current efforts can be found on our Announcement Board!

Sign the petition to support the Ferret Protection Act HERE!

National Regulation/USDA Petition

While our ultimate goal would be to pass national legislation in all states that follows the regulations and standards stated above, we realize that due to the differing legislative efforts in other states and other complicating factors, that it would be near impossible to pass 12 week legislation at the national level. Having said that, there is a very important effort in the works right now to promote regulation of the large 'farms' through the USDA. Dr. Sandra Kudrak and the International Ferret Congress, with the support of many other ferret organizations including MD Ferret PAWS, are petitioning the USDA to put specific regulations in place regarding the sale, shipment, housing conditions, etc of ferrets from large breeding facilities.

We encourage everyone to write a letter (snail mail is best), email, phone or fax the relevant people at the USDA to let them know that you support these efforts! Please contact:

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman
1400 Independence Ave SW Room 312-E
Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250
agsec@usda.gov
202-720-3631

Bobby Acord, Administrator of the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service
1400 Independence Ave SW Room 200-A
Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250
Bobby.R.Acord@usda.gov
202-720-3668, Fax 202-720-3054

and

Your federal congressional delegation. Use the below websites if you are unsure who to contact.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

You can read more about the efforts at http://ferretcongress.org/.

News and updates on our current efforts can be found on our Announcement Board!

Sign the petition to support the Ferret Protection Act HERE!