Recently I heard rumors that Chinchillas are illegal in Australia and California. I thought that the rumor about Cali was completely unfounded since I know there are several large breeders in California, and that California is the first place chinchillas were imported to in 1918, but after several people mentioned the illegal chin rumor I decided to do some investigating.

It turns out these rumors about California are not completely unfounded! They do not seem to affect our furry chinchilla friends, but there is a whole list of creatures and cute critters that are not allowed to be kept as pets in California. The usual no alligators, lions and other animals that of course shouldn’t really be hanging out in one’s home are on the list, but included are some surprising black list animals, like ferrets, hedgehogs and sugar gliders. The full list can be found on the California department of fish and game website listed below http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/species/nuis_exo/ferret/ferret_issues_table6.html

The ferret restriction seems to be the one that raises the most controversy. Ferret owners and enthusiasts have been actively lobbying for a change in the law to allow ferrets to be kept as pets. They claim ferrets were mistakenly added to the original 1933 restriction list. Furthermore, most Ferrets that are sold commercially have been neutered, substantially undermining the argument that Ferrets could cause serious, persistent harm to the environment should a few escape. Ferret enthusiast can get involved and support the cause at http://www.ferretsanon.com/ but as for chinchillas in California, go for it!

The strangest restriction I ran across was a prohibition against pet rabbits in Australia. Rabbits are not native to Australia, and according to Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Queensland, the rabbit is Australia's most destructive introduced pest. Wild rabbits cause more than $600 million damage every year, and are responsible for severe land degradation and soil erosion. Wild rabbits threaten the survival of many rare and endangered species of native wildlife. The keeping of rabbits as pets is also strongly opposed by many rural landholders whose livelihood is threatened by wild rabbit plagues. The penalties for keeping a rabbit of any variety is steep and can be as high as $30,000. A proposal to legalize desexed “fixed” domestic rabbits as pets was considered in 1994 but was rejected. Very few permits are even granted to own a rabbit and include:

-Scientific research for universities only

-Certain magicians and circuses

Also if you are caught breeding rabbits, fines are even steeper so beware! One cute little fluff ball can sure do a ton of damage! More information on restricted pets can be found on http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au when I went to look for the full restricted pet list the page was unavailable so the issue on whether chinchillas are illegal pets in Australia still stands, but I am thinking the answer is yes they are probably restricted.  Before bringing a chinchilla to Australia, be sure to call or write the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Queensland They have had several problems with domesticated pets being released into the wild and messing up the ecosystem. There was a Simpson’s episode where Bart lets a frog loose in Australia that goes into this issue a bit.