Seriously i think everyone needs to stop scrutinizing and take action. Yes it will be hard but not impossible. Im not even saying it will work but im going to try and help anyway i can. I guess im just an optimist that way.

Bordercollie u really seem against this whole thing from the very beginning. Why? What if u couldnt have gliders where u lived? I bet u would be working pretty hard to try and make them legal.

You keep saying everyone needs to be optimistic. That may be a little true but the real thing every one needs is to be realistic.

Like T said, Ferrets, are a common household name as far as pets go and they are still illegal, tens of thousands sign petitions for ferrets in California and we need to remember it STILL DOESN'T WORK. Go ahead and sign your,100 signature petition, it's a waste of time and won't do diddly squat.

People need to realistically approach this and realize it is going to take years and probably many petitions to finally work. If it ever does.

Also, Lauren, nearly every one of your posts on this thread contains my name, I think we should keep on topic and stop trying to start drama.

Trust me hun im not trying to start drama. Ur just shooting down what people are trying to do. We are being realistic. But there needs to be some optimism too. I never said it was possible i simply said it wasnt impossible.

On that note im going to post this on fb and ask everyone to repost to get this thing going.

There are many people on here trying to get gliders legal in their areas so why bring down someone who is trying? In my opinion ur trying to start drama by bringing people down.

Bordercollie,
My petition isn't only for 100 signatures. It just starts with that and then the number increases once I reach that goal. There is no limit to the number of people who can sign. And yea I don't expect this to happen overnight but with effort it can most definatley happen.
As far as ferrets go, I don't know why those petitions didn't work. Maybe they were given to the wrong person. Since you live in Canada and not California I'm going to assume you really had nothing to do with that and therefor you really don't know the details.
I don't know about ferrets and this petition and forum has nothing to do with them so bringing them up is pointless.
If there's any reason a petition doesn't work, it's because of people like you.
You have had no constructive criticism. You have been against this whole thing from the beginning. You told me that I was being mean, rude and intimidating in my petition. Well the truth is that your the one being rude, selfish and intimidating in this thread.
I am trying to make a positive difference here.
If this is a waste of time then stop posting here and go bother somebody else.

As far as everybody else goes,
Thank you for your support and feedback.
This petition has only a positive result. There is no negative side effect from this.
It can only do good things for people, especially those of us whole truly love the little guys!

Thanks!

This is the only warning that will be posted in this thread. Please, everyone take a deep breath, remember we all love our gliders, and we all agreed to rule 4 when we joined membership on this forum.

I apologize. Thank you for the warning

Jimmy have you thought about seeing if you can get the petition listed on change.org that might get you more signatures. I'm not sure what the requirements to have a petition there are but you might want to check it out.

Wouldn't it be listed there since I made it there?
I'm confused by what you mean.

dang stil not working for me..

Jimmy, I didn't get to read all the posts on this page so I'm not sure if this has been said.
I thought you may want to add something to your petition as to why gliders make great pets.

I love that a healthy glider will live 12-15 years. My first pair lived about that long. Having a pet you can keep in your family for that amount of time is a wonderful thing. A lot of people can't keep a pet with that lifespan due to living in an apartment where dogs or cats are not allowed. Being able to have a small pet that's a caged animal is great for people that rent or are allergic to dogs/cats. Smaller caged pets like a rat, hamster, ferret often don't even have half the life span as a healthy glider. I don't know about you but the longer I can keep my loving pet with me though my life the happier I am. 3-4 years isn't enough for me.. heck 15 isn't either with how much I love my gliders.
The only common pet I know that has a long life span that I know of and could be for someone in an apartment would be a bird or reptile. I don't see myself being able to cuddle or put one of them in my shirt. I'm all for gliders being legal is all states! Good luck with your petition. I won't be able to visit CA to see family until they make them legal.

I signed the petition. Good Luck Jimmy

Good luck n good work! !!

I haven't read all of the thread, so pardon me if this is already answered, what is the reasoning behind them being illegal? If you knew that you might be able to build a case...

Just trying to be helpful, I hope they become legal every where

Signed & shared

Paranoia and ignorance, mostly. There's also the fact that CA has a bit of a warmer climate so they might be able to survive in the wild, and of course it's bad for any ecosystem to have foreign species introduced.

It may seem like an impossible task to do, and it probably is, but who knows? Maybe after a year, there will be thousands of signatures and then someone else will start one, and sugar gliders will become legal. It has changed in some states. There's no harm in trying, just be realistic about it. California is a tough state and their laws are many - they are very concerned about preserving their landscape and wildlife. Keep trying - I don't think gliders should be grouped alongside other marsupials either.

Well Jimmy, it looks like you got your 100. Cudos to you, at least SOMEONE sees that something needs to be said and done to educate the politicians in CA. I applaud you on your efforts. As for the politicians---see my signature..

Good luck in your journey Jimmy


SBP

I live in MN where gliders are legal. Unfortunately they are banned from homes that do licensed daycare. They say they pose a threat of salmonella to small children. My licensors would not overturn their decision even though you could get salmonella from hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs and even your cats or dogs. They said because they are not on the approved list of pets that I had to contact my legislator. I was optimistic about that because he is from my town. Well to no avail he wouldn't do anything because it doesn't affect enough people to bother with his time and effort, so I had to give up my license. I keep bothering him and will continue to do so. (By the way none of my daycare parents were concerned about my gliders)So changing a state law will be hard but keep pressing on, it is all you can do if you love sugar gliders and want to change the law. It has to start some where.

I would consider writing letters to both Dr. Welch in Tulsa and Dr. Tristan in Corpus Christi and see if they would both give you professional letters about why gliders are not known carriers of Salmonella.

I disagree. Things can change. The state of Georgia once banned sugar gliders, now the law is changed to which you can own them if acquired from a USDA breeder. It's not a waste of time and if someone wishes to get it done, with the proper information, it can happen. We should never say never. If people sit around and do nothing, then nothing is achieved. If a whole state can change a law, one city can as well.

I signed, good luck!

lol why are you so mean to him, im kinda scared i feel like ur extremely angry lol

we should at least try, how do you know it wont work if you never tried.

ferrets are predators, and they are like chihuahua sized.

im not giving up, and please dont shoot us down anymore, lets all keep positive minds

Hi,
First off, Jimmy what you're doing is great and really important. I have been an active environmentalist for years and have written, signed and pushed petitions. I've met with government officials in both my state, NY, and Washington D.C. Starting the petition was the best place to begin. I know it has been months since you started it. You reached your 100 person goal, but seem to have gotten stuck before reaching the 500 or 1000 person goals. Everyone has given you a lot of good advice on this thread. However, when I was reading over the petition there are a few grammatical errors (which any spell check could help with) as well as some less than professional speech. Petitions are aggressive and formatting them in bullet points is very useful. however, you want to stick mostly to facts that can be proven and get rid of any that are strictly personal opinion. If you'd like more detailed help I'd be more than happy to help you do some extreme edits and possibly additions.

My sister lives in California and my current graduate program has nothing during the summer. She's dying for me to move out there for the summer and although I can find babysitters for my cat and frogs, I don't want to leave the sugar gliders for three months. It would be unfair to them. Laws often take years to change. California is one of the hardest states. However, although I understand it won't be changed by summer, I would like to help you.

BTW. I signed your petition already. Although it could be improved, you obviously put a lot of work into it and you have succeeded in creating a good base for the petition.

Remember, change can only happen when someone fights for it. If everyone excepts a defeatist attitude, nothing will ever change.

Hmm, has anyone called the California Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to talk to them about this and what their actual policy on gliders is? Why are they illegal in the first place? Are there steps that can be taken to petition the legalization of an animal as a pet?

I know that sounds patronizing, but the reason I ask is because I'm working on a documentary short about sugar gliders and flew up to Massachusetts to interview the assistant director of their Fisheries and Wildlife Division. Lo and behold, gliders are being legalized in Massachusetts in the next few months. I have the interview footage to prove it.

The reason they were never legalized in the first place is because no one had taken the time to fill out the proper paperwork until just recently. Everyone just complained about it online, but no one took the initiative to pick up the phone and call the Fisheries and Wildlife Division to hear about their actual policy on gliders. As it turns out, Massachusetts never really had a problem with gliders, they just needed someone outside of their organization to fill out the paperwork because they themselves are not allowed to initiate the legalization of an animal. Long story short, one phone call could have saved a whole lot of people a whole lot of trouble.

I know next to nothing about California's policies, but it might be worth a phone call. Find out who is in charge and get in contact with them. Good luck!