Pet Ferrets: Cute, Cuddly, Illegal

Americans own about 2 million ferrets, and some are asking why they remain illegal in several states and cities. “Martin Luther King said an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” one ferret advocate said. “And this is an injustice.” Opponents say that owners are imprisoning wild animals, but defenders maintain that a common breed has been domesticated for centuries.

California ferret-owners hoped that Arnold Schwarzennegger, who co-starred with a ferret in Kindergarten Cop, would lift the ban, but the Governator vetoed amnesty in 2004. Rudy Giuliani, while New York mayor, called "this excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness." Likely neither will be at the nation's annual ferret show in Columbus, Ohio, in August, the Chicago Tribune reports.