Five Dollar Ferret Friday

Perhaps Sunday's CLIFFNotes sounded a little pessimistic.

This week's Joe Ferret cartoon explains why.

Last June, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to give our petition "further consideration." On its face, that sounded encouraging.

But look closer at the illustration.

Joe and his friends are standing in front of a giant black hole labeled "Further Consideration." The meeting agenda has disappeared into it. Our petition has disappeared into it. Even the June 2026 calendar is being swallowed.

That's because nobody seems to know what "further consideration" actually means.

Not the Commission.
Not the Department.
Not even the regulations.

For more than a year, our petition has simply... existed.

Not approved.
Not denied.
Not processed.

Just suspended in bureaucratic limbo.

Ironically, that may become the most important part of this entire case.

I spent a considerable amount of time asking multiple AI legal research models to analyze the statutes, regulations, the agencies' filings, and the arguments made in our lawsuit. While AI isn't the judge, the analyses were remarkably consistent.

Their conclusion?

Several of the models concluded that the agencies' procedural arguments are relatively weak and that our challenge raises a significant issue of administrative law—not just for ferrets, but for every Californian who petitions a state agency.

If that analysis proves correct, this case could establish an important precedent:

When a California agency accepts a citizen petition, it has to do something with it.

It cannot simply throw it into a bureaucratic black hole and hope everyone eventually forgets.

That's a much bigger issue than ferrets.

It's about government accountability.

We'll find out soon enough whether the courts agree.

Until then...

🍿 You might want to stock up on popcorn.