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By Karen PearlmanJune 23, 2025 (San Diego County) – Ferrets may be moving a step closer to being allowed to thrive in homes in California.
The animal that is legal in nearly every contiguous state across the nation, but still considered an undomesticated, wild animal in California and Hawaii may have that status changed.
Earlier this month, ferret legalization advocate Pat Wright, a La Mesa resident and leader of the nonprofit group LegalizeFerrets.org, reported that the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously approved Wright’s petition for a regulation change for ferrets and remove them from the restricted species list.
While generally prohibited, permits for possessing ferrets may be issued for research, public exhibits or educational purposes but not for personal pet ownership.The matter now goes to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for research, analysis and a recommendation on the future of the ferret as a domesticated animal.
The CFW will then return to the CFGC for a final decision at a later date.
Wright has long asserted that the CFGC’s decision to categorize domestic ferrets as wild animals, without conducting any scientific studies or affording meaningful public input is unjust and lacks a foundation in scientific evidence.
California has continued to ban domestic ferrets because state officials claim the animals pose a risk to wildlife, public health and the environment. But ferrets are legal in 48 other states, many with climates and ecosystems very similar to California’s.
Wright says he is tracking if any of the problems California fears have actually happened anywhere else.
“If the answer is no, as we strongly suspect, then it’s time to ask why California continues to uphold a ban that’s not based on real-world evidence,” Wright said.
The concerns are around feral populations and worries that if ferrets escape, they could survive in the wild and form feral breeding populations; harm to native wildlife and that ferrets could prey on or outcompete native wildlife; if ferrets can carry or transmit rabies; public safety and if ferrets pose a safety risk through biting incidents or injuries.
Wright (photo, right) said he expects to find that no state has experienced those problems.
“No feral populations. No ecological damage. No rabies outbreaks,” Wright said. “Just tens of thousands of happy, healthy pet ferrets and responsible owners. It’s time California updated its policies to reflect facts — not fear.”
As part of a 50-state survey Wright is undertaking, he said the group isn’t asking whether ferrets have caused problems, its seeking to find out what regulations each state has in place where ferrets are legal.
He said some of the most common restrictions include mandatory rabies vaccinations, licensing or registration requirements, spay/neuter (sterile ferret) policies, and bans on private breeding or commercial sale in pet stores.
“These are the real-world tools other states use to address concerns — without banning ferrets entirely,” he said.Wright cautioned that legalization isn’t the end of the road but the beginning of “building a policy that works.”
At the CFGC meeting on June 11 in Sacramento, Wright called in to make the case for legalization, as did San Diego resident Kim Epand.
“Ferrets are not wild animals, they are not dangerous and they have never formed a feral colony in North America,” Epand said. “It is not right to keep these animals illegal in California.”
Speaking against the case for domestic ferrets to be removed from the state’s list of prohibited species, California Waterfowl Association VP of Advocacy Mark Hennelly brought up a case of ferrets being predators of waterfowl, pheasants, rabbits and other animals and said that ferrets have wreaked havoc in New Zealand.
Wright counters that while ferrets are problematic in New Zealand, the type of ferrets in that country are wild European polecats and ferret hybrids who were intentionally introduced in the late 1880s to control the rabbit population. Wright also notes that New Zealand is an island ecosystem with no native mammalian predators.
He said that in more than 40 years of legal ownership in those states in the U.S. where they are legal, ferrets have never formed a feral population or wiped out native wildlife.
“Using New Zealand as an argument against responsible pet ownership in California is like banning goldfish because of a carp invasion in Asia,” Wright said. “It’s intellectually lazy, and intentionally misleading.”
See our previous coverage here.
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