What can you do to help us get the small and hybrid cats legal in Nebraska?

Right now we need to find people--lots of people--who support us. We need to spread the word. Right now we're primarily looking for Nebraska residents. But there will be times later when nonresidents can also help.

People friendly to our cause may fit into one or more of the following categories:

Nebraskans who already own cats that are technically illegal in the state (for whatever reason)
Cat enthusiasts (in general)
People who want to own one of the currently-prohibited cats
People who (in general) oppose ever-increasing governmental intrusion into our personal lives
Veterinarians and their staff personnel

So we need you to help us spread the word: tell other people about the problem. Get them to read through this website for themselves. And (if they're sympathetic to our cause) try to get them to recruit other like-minded people.

Start taking an interest in your local State Senator: find out how he/she stands on other issues important to you. When re-election time comes around, either help their campaign with volunteer time (and money, if you can)--or help their competitor win. If you are even a little bit familiar to them, your efforts to influence them later (and your access to them to try to influence them) may be improved.

Keep an eye on your local government (city council, county commissioners, town council--whatever your most-local law-making body is), and as soon as you find out about any new proposed regulations on small exotic or hybrid cats. That way we can get the word out and make an effort to oppose any new laws if they further restrict our rights.
Even though these cats are currently illegal as far as the state is concerned, we still need to stop any further local restrictions. Our efforts to relegalize them state-wide could be moot if every county, city, and town also have ban laws in place. So we need to keep any more local ban laws from being put into place.

Consider testifying for or against legislative bills that affect you. Watch for bills in the Legislature that are important to you and go testify for or against them when their public hearings are held in committee. Practice makes perfect, and the experience of researching, preparing for, and speaking to a committee will help you whenever you need to do it again.
Do not underestimate the influence a single person can have with a Legislative committee having a public hearing on a bill. I have testified several times against bills in the Nebraska Legislature— twice I was the only one there to speak in opposition to the proposed bill. One of those bills never left committee, and another was changed to address one of the objections I'd raised about it. In each case I followed up with emails to Senators on the committee, and in one of the cases there was also followup communication with a state regulatory commission, which ultimately resulted in changing the bill. I can't claim to have been the sole reason those changes happened—I don't know what letters (or other communications) existed that supported my positions that I never became aware of. But sometimes a single person can make a difference if you get the right ideas to the right people.

Also watch the federal government: if further national restrictions on private ownership and transportation of exotic cats get put into place, future efforts of ours at the state level could all be for nothing.

Do not support animal "rights" groups. If you're currently a member or support any animal rights organization, stop supporting them: PETA, HSUS, API and others are among the most powerful opponents to you and I being able to own small exotic cats and their hybrids. Most of the pressure and support for new exotic cat bans in states where they are still legal come from groups like this. They have lots of money to lobby for legislation, and make no bones about opposing our right to own small exotic cats and their hybrids.

Remember that many wild cat species are threatened or endangered. There are more cats in captivity of a few species than there are currently in the wild. Most wild cat species are under severe habitat encroachment by Man, and we're not seeing big success in curtailing that. Zoos do not have enough spaces available to preserve viable captive populations of hardly any of the species. If the captive populations are legislated out of existence, more wild cat species will die out forever. It appears that this is what PETA, API, HSUS, et al want.

Know what position organizations that receive your donations take on private exotic cat ownership. The fact that an organization (or famous person) takes care of animals--even exotic cats--does not mean that they aren't actively supporting legislation that will prevent you and I from ever owning any. Many (but certainly not all) big cat "sanctuaries" are like this. They show lots of pictures of their own big and small exotic cats, asking you to donate money to support their collection of cats (generally describing in morbid detail the pitiful conditions from which every cat was "rescued"). Then they tell you all other private owners are unfit and unworthy to own such cats. Only donate financial support to sanctuaries that do not oppose responsible private ownership.

Join a group that explicitly supports your right to own the cat of your choice. I support the Feline Conservation Federation (FCF). They're an excellent information resource, and they're trying to keep an eye on developing legislation at both state and federal levels. If you think you'll ever want to own a small exotic cat someday, they also have an excellent 1-day course on exotic cat husbandry.

Set yourself up to maintain communication with NebraskaServal.com
There are three ways to do this:

Become a member of the NebraskaServal elist on Yahoo.
Joining this elist enables you to post messages to all the other members, and to read (and respond to) their replies to your posts. It's a great way for a group of people to exchange information among themselves. You have direct communication with other people in the group. The list is "moderated," so there are limits to the kinds of messages that may be posted there. For example:
- The list is to be used for topics related to the legal status of small exotic cats and their hybrids (mostly--but not exclusively--in Nebraska)
- Personal attacks directed towards other members will not be tolerated. The elist is for the exchange of information and ideas. Debate on contentious issues is OK, but we need to remember that we're here for an overall common goal. We cannot jeopardize our ability to work together on that by attacking each other personally during any debate.
- There are also further, more general, rules governing the use of Yahoo elists that Yahoo requires that are more of a legal nature.
Sign up for email updates from NebraskaServal.com
This will put your email address into our database, and you'll be emailed when we need your help with something--generally it will be to help support or oppose some kind of law-making activity on either the state or local level (in Nebraska). I do not use this list to solicit help with issues in other states or for national issues, although those things are fair game in the NebraskaServal Yahoo elist.
Use one of our links anywhere in this website
This sends a private email directly to me, and will be answered by me.

Do not think of these three lines of communication as being mutually exclusive of each other. You may use any combination--or all of them, depending on the situation.