https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/demurrer<\/a>), a motion arguing that even if the allegations in the petition are true, they don\u2019t add up to a valid legal claim.<\/p>\nWright has now filed his opposition to that demurrer, arguing the Commission and CDFW have a \u201cmandatory duty to determine\u201d the regulatory status of ferrets, citing a 1998 San Diego Superior Court case, Marshall Farms USA Inc. v. California Fish & Game Commission that reached a similar conclusion involving the same commission.<\/p>\n
A hearing on the demurrer is scheduled for 11 a.m., Friday, Oct. 2 in Sacramento County Superior Court before Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang.<\/p>\n
The background \u2014 and a happy ending tale<\/p>\n
Ferrets have been banned as pets in California since 1931; only Hawaii has a similar prohibition.<\/p>\n
Wright, who has had ferrets as pets since 1988, has spent decades pushing to change that status \u2014 running ballot initiatives, lobbying the Legislature and in 2004, watching a bill that would have legalized ferrets die under a veto from then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n
The legal fight took a detour last week when one of Wright\u2019s own ferrets, Simon, went missing from his home. After searching the house, Wright\u2019s cat led him to a decades-old fireplace insert, where Simon had become wedged inside the metal structure and could not free himself.<\/p>\n
Unsuccessful in trying to lure Simon out, Wright called the La Mesa Fire Department for assistance \u2014 Heartland Fire & Rescue took his request seriously and sent two engines.<\/p>\n
Firefighters used a camera scope to locate Simon before partially dismantling the fireplace and using rescue tools to free him.<\/p>\n
Wright noted that Simon emerged \u201csooty\u201d but unharmed and had fully recovered within a day.<\/p>\n
Wright said the firefighters said nothing about the legality of keeping ferrets in California \u2014 just did the right thing in helping his pet safely out of danger.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Aug. 23, Wright brought the firefighting crew an ice cream cake as a way to say thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Karen Pearlman (La Mesa) \u2014 Advocates seeking legal recognition for domestic ferrets as companion animals in California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[128591,85322,174940,150745,174941,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-441529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california-department-of-fish-wildlife","tag-california-fish-and-game-commission","tag-legalize-ferrets","tag-news-flasher","tag-pat-wright","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}