(LA MESA, Calif.) — NEWS: Pat Wright, a California resident and advocate for ferret legalization, and founder of LegalizeFerrets.org, has filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate in Sacramento County Superior Court against the California Fish and Game Commission and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The petition asks the court to compel the agencies to comply with their duties under the California Administrative Procedure Act in response to Petition 2025-003, which challenges the continued classification of domestic ferrets as prohibited animals in California.
Domestic ferrets are legal to own in 48 U.S. states, yet California continues to maintain a prohibition that originated in early importation regulations adopted in 1933.
Under Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, section 671, ferrets are prohibited because they are categorized as animals “not normally domesticated in this state.” Historical materials describing the regulatory history of ferrets in California indicate that this determination appeared in regulatory language adopted in 1988, stating that the Commission had determined the listed animals were not normally domesticated in California.
A chronology of California’s ferret regulations appears in Appendix II: History of California Regulations / Policies Pertaining to Ferrets, compiled from multiple sources including Kizer and Constantine (1989), Weisser (1991), Moore and Whisson (1998), Herman (2000), Graening (2010), and California Department of Fish and Game records.
In June 2025, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously accepted Petition 2025-003 for consideration and referred it to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for review.
According to Wright, the agencies have not yet issued a formal response to the petition.
Seeking to understand what work had been conducted in response to the petition, Wright submitted California Public Records Act requests for documents describing the Department’s review.
“The Department responded that it may take up to 90 days to produce records showing what actions have been taken,” Wright said.
Wright argues that the pace of response contrasts with how the Commission has handled other petitions.
In a recent case involving Asian water buffalo, the Commission completed the petition review process in approximately eight and a half months.
“The Commission accepted Petition 2025-003 last June,” Wright said. “We are simply asking the agencies to perform the review and provide the response required under California law.”
The lawsuit asks the court to order the agencies to perform their statutory duties and properly respond to Petition 2025-003.
The filed petition and supporting notice can be viewed here: (PDF) https://www.legalizeferrets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Writ-and-Exhibit-A.pdf
Additional information about the petition and the effort to legalize ferrets in California can be found at: https://www.legalizeferrets.org/
Related link: https://www.legalizeferrets.org/
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