This could be the year that ferrets win their freedom in California. No more sneaking into the veterinarian's office or supping surreptitiously on cat food. If state lawmakers approve, ferrets may be granted amnesty in the last place on the North American continent that still outlaws them.
And it's not just ferrets that could get new protection.
This also could be the year that California lawmakers ban the declawing of cats, prevent unweaned birds from being sold by pet stores and bar shelters from sending animals to research institutions. Another bill would make it a crime to keep calves and pregnant sows cramped in crates. And one piece of legislation would toughen the existing law against cockfighting, ratcheting up the maximum fine from $5,000 to $20,000.
Every year, the Legislature tackles a small complement of animal welfare bills. This year there have been at least 10, although some have already died in committee. And though the issues may be more quirky than weighty, they stir passions and provoke ribbing among lawmakers. Even howling, on occasion.
A couple of years ago, when Assemblyman Ken Maddox (R-Costa Mesa) presented a bill regulating dog breeding, he was greeted with bi-partisan barking on the Assembly floor. "It sounded like the inside of a kennel," he said. "Hey, as long as I got their votes." He did.
'Baseline Protection'
California is an animal-rights activist's dream. Measuring by legislation getting governors' signatures, "California is far and away the best state in the country," said Sara Amundson, deputy director and legislative director of the Doris Day Animal League, headquartered in Washington, D.C. "As far as baseline protection for animals goes, California is the best."
Last year, California became the second state to pass a bill requiring that anti-freeze contain a bitter-tasting agent to discourage pets, wildlife and children from drinking it. . A bill passed in 2000 made the state the first to bar manufacturers and testing companies from using animals for testing when a scientifically valid alternative method of testing is available.
"Very few states regulate research animals, circus animals, sanctuary animals, dealers and breeders," said Nicole Paquette, general counsel of the Animal Protection Institute, which is headquartered in Sacramento but lobbies for animal legislation across the country. Paquette said that when her group gets turned down in other states, "what we always hear is, 'Only in California.' ''
This year, if the ban on declawing passes, California will be the only state in the country with such a statewide restriction. If the bill banning confining crates for pigs and calves passes, California will be the only state to outlaw them for both kinds of animals, according to Gene Bauston, president of Farm Sanctuary, the group that brought the bill to its author, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley). New Jersey is considering a ban on 2-foot-wide crates for veal calves, and Florida recently banned gestation crates for pigs through a ballot initiative.
Usually, Democrats introduce animal bills. "Republicans are naturally regulation-averse," said Maddox, who owns a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Millie. "I fit that category, but I have a soft spot for animals."
So do a lot of his colleagues. Animal bills cut across lines of party, gender and age to connect with the one thing that nearly every member of the Legislature is or once was: a pet owner.
"There's usually a personal connection," said Richard Katz, a former Democratic Assembly leader who spent 16 years in the Legislature and watched such bills come and go -- or, in the case of ferret legislation, never quite go.
This session, the mantle of ferret defender goes to Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego), a 12-year veteran of the Legislature who previously sat in the Assembly. "I would hope I'm better known for work I've done in education than for this bill," she said.
But the animal lovers who watch her ferret bill and others affecting animals follow the process intensely and lobby hard. "They are just passionate," Alpert said. So are the people who oppose such legislation. Hunters were fervently against Assemblyman Joe Nation's bill to outlaw the hunting of mourning doves and white-winged doves. "We've gotten pretty nasty e-mails and calls," said Nation (D-San Rafael).
He hadn't seen his bill as controversial -- "You can't argue that people go out to shoot them and eat them" -- but he withdrew it before it reached the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. "I'm a political realist," said Nation, who estimated he didn't have the necessary committee votes.
Ellen Corbett, a Democratic Assemblywoman from San Leandro and the former mayor of that city, introduced a bill prohibiting the sale of unweaned baby birds from pet stores to the public. "I think how we treat our animals is part of how we show our humanity," she said. Even before the bill arrived in a committee, she had received 300 e-mails and letters in support of it, Corbett said.
