Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's that time of year again. Maryland Ferret PAWS and Rocky's Ferret Shelter have been working collaboratively to propose a new, expanded version of the Ferret Protection Act this year. With input from Dr. Keith Gold and Dr. Bruce Williams, we have amended the previous version of the bill to be a more complete and enforceable piece of legislation. Representatives of MD Ferret PAWS, Rocky's Ferret Shelter and the Baltimore Ferret Club met with Delegates Boteler and Cluster to finalize the wording and plan for the upcoming hearing.

We expect the bill to be assigned a number within the next few days. In the meantime, WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please visit our website and sign the online petition, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE IN MARYLAND. The petition is located at www.mdferretpaws.org/legislation/petition.html.

If you would like to follow along with our progress, we will post updates on our announcement board as things progress. If you would like to help us get this important bill passed by collecting signatures in your area or would like to show your support by attending the hearing, please send me an email and I will make sure that you get the information you need.

Vicki Rummel
President
MD Ferret PAWS, Inc.
www.mdferretpaws.org
Petition - www.mdferretpaws.org/legislation/petition.html
Announcements - www.mdferretpaws.org/cgi/mboard/discus.cgi

PAWS petition

Today I'm the bearer of bad news. The crossover date has come and gone and the Judiciary Committee didn't vote on our bill. For the bill to pass, the Judiciary Committee would have had to present a favorable vote to the House, then the House would vote on the bill. This needed to happen before the crossover when House bills are sent to the Senate and vice versa. We presented our best efforts this year, and are tremendously disappointed that the committee didn't feel compelled to vote. In an ideal world, they would have time to vote on all bills that are presented before them, but it just doesn't happen that way. A 'no vote' is better than an 'unfavorable' vote, but not by much since it still means that our bill is dead for this year.

We have started discussions with Delegate Cluster for the strategy for next year. He is very much on board and ACTIVE in wanting to get this important legislation passed. There will be more updates as we have progress on this front. In the meantime, we will continue to collect petition signatures online and at locations around Maryland. If you would like to help in this effort, please let me know and I'll get you the information you need. We can make this happen!

Vicki Rummel
www.mdferretpaws.org