NYC ban on keeping ferrets as pets stays, health board rules
Ferrets won’t get a legal foothold in New York City.
The city Board of Health decided Tuesday to maintain a long-standing prohibition on keeping the animals as pets. The vote was 3-2 to lift the ban, but it needed six votes to pass. There were four abstentions; board members didn’t have to give a reason for not voting.
Related to weasels, ferrets are believed to have been domesticated about 2,000 years ago. They have gained popularity as pets in recent decades, spotlighted by such celebrity fans as Paris Hilton. The American Veterinary Medicine Association estimated in 2012 that some 334,000 households nationwide have ferrets, a minute fraction of those with dogs or cats.