NYC maintains ban on ferrets as household pets

Ferrets will have to stay underground if they want to be domestic pets in New York City.

A black-footed ferret Image by USFWS Mountain-Prairie / CC BY 2.0

The city’s Board of Health had the chance to end a 16 year ban on keeping them as pets but yesterday voted instead to maintain the prohibition on the animals. Only half the numbers required voted for the abolition, with two board members voting against and five members abstaining.

The New York Times reports that from the start of the meeting, the signs were that those in favour of bringing the ferret issue above ground were only digging a hole for themselves. The poor record of ferret injuries including bitings and smells kept cropping up with one health official claiming that the animal seemed to be “uniquely problematic.”