News for Florida animal advocates

Last weekend, a few short weeks after Japan’s whaling fleet returned to port with the bodies of 551 minke whales killed in the waters of the Antarctic, Norway killed its first whale of the season on the other side of the globe. Norway hopes to kill over 1000 whales in 2008.

In 1986, after many species were hunted to the brink of extinction, the International Whaling Commission enacted a moratorium on all commercial whaling. Since then, three nations – Iceland, Norway and Japan – have slaughtered almost 25,000 whales. Unlike the Japanese, the Norwegians don’t pretend to be killing whales for “scientific” reasons; Norway is blatant about the fact that they kill whales to sell the meat for profit.

Whaling is notoriously inhumane. Even when a whale is hit with an exploding harpoon, it can take several minutes or as long as an hour before he or she dies.

Please contact a Norwegian consulate near you and ask Norway to please stop hunting whales.

Contact:
Honorary Consul General Trond S. Jensen
Royal Norwegian Consulate General
   *(this is the main consulate for the state of Florida.)
1007 North America Way, Suite 305
Miami, FL 33132
Phone: (305) 358-4386
Fax: (305) 374-4369
E-mail: tsj@rncgmiami.co

Honorary Consul George D. Gabel
Royal Norwegian Consulate
50 N. Laura St. #3900
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Phone: (904) 353-2000
Fax:     (904) 358-1872
E-mail: ggabel@hklaw.com

Honorary Consul Richard L. Appleyard
Royal Norwegian Consulate
4400 Bayoud Blvd., Suite 34
Pensacola, FL 32503
Phone: (850) 494-2194
Fax:     (850) 494-0289
E-mail: dick@appleyardagency.com

Honorary Consul Arthur Renfro Savage
Royal Norwegian Consulate
701 Harbour Post Dve.
Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: (813) 247-4550
Fax:     (813) 247-4256
E-mail: arthurs@arsavage.com

The 2008 Regular Session of the Florida Legislature ended on Friday with some good news for animals and some bad news.

The only animal-related bill that ARFF supported that passed was the “Gertrude Maxwell Save a Pet Act.” The Act creates an organization within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that will raise funds to support spaying and neutering throughout Florida. The bill passed both the Florida House and Senate with unanimous votes. It’s impact is still to be seen.

Our biggest disappointment this session was the failure of House Bill 1227 and Senate Bill 744 which would have prohibited sexual contact with animals. In 2007, there were several disturbing cases of sexual abuse of animals in Florida. Shockingly, bestiality is not expressly outlawed in Florida. Although the bill was one of the most talked-about in this year’s session, it did not make much progress before the session ended. We would like to thank Rep. Bill Heller and Sen. Nan Rich for introducing this important legislation. We hope that it will be reintroduced next year.

There were two other important bills that we strongly supported:

Senate Bill 444, introduced by Sen. Larcenia Bullard, would have strengthened Florida’s “Pet Lemon Law” by transferring power to regulate the sale of dogs and cats to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and strengthen penalties for violations. The bill passed the Agriculture and Judiciary committes with unanimous votes, but did not make it out of its final committee before the end of the session.

Senate Bill 590 would have granted authority to Florida’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to “inspect any area at a pari-mutuel facility where racing animals are housed or maintained.” The bill would have helped to ensure the humane treatment of animals at dog and horse tracks. S 590 was passed by the Florida Senate with a vote of 30 to 8, but unfortunately did not make it to the floor of the House for a vote before the session ended.

But we were thrilled at the death of several bills that would have been bad news for animals in Florida.

House Bill 101 would have reversed Florida’s prohibition on breed-specific regulations, allowing municipalities to ban breeds of dogs. We believe that there are more appropriate and effective methods of curbing dangerous dog behavior. Thankfully, HB 101 did not advance out of committee.

Two bills that were strongly supported by the dog racing industry– Senate Bills 1380 and 970– passed the Florida Senate but were not considered in the Florida House. The bills would have allowed slot machines at dog tracks across the state, and would have provided a tax break to those tracks with existing slots, thus subsidizing the cruel dog racing industry for years to come.

On June 1, new state and federal rules go into effect that will require anglers who fish for “reef fish,” such as snapper, grouper and amberjack to use circle hooks and to have dehooking and venting tools on board their boats.

If you don’t know what the heck that means, you’re probably not an angler (thank you!). A quick explanation:

• Due to their curved shape, circle hooks are less likely to catch fish in the stomach or throat; instead, fish are hooked in the lip where it is believed the injury will not be life-threatening.
• Fish, much like human divers, can suffer decompression sickness when they are pulled to the surface from deep underwater. Venting devices are used to puncture the fish and release gases that build up when the pressure changes. An article about the new rules in the Fort Myers News-Press last week included a photograph of a grouper whose stomach was pushed out of his mouth, a common result of decompression sickness in fish.
• Dehooking tools make it possible for a hook to be removed without having to touch the fish or take the fish out of the water (handling fish damages their protective “slime” layer, leaving them open to infection).

We’re not sure what to think of the new rules. It is a positive thing that federal and state agencies are requiring techniques that may reduce injury and increase the number of fish who survive after being pulled out of the ocean. But we don’t understand how anglers can learn, in detail, about the many different injuries they cause fish and still enjoy the activity? We hope that as anglers learn more about how fish suffer, they will hang up their fishing rods for good.

Tourists at Orlando’s Discovery Cove marine park on Sunday received an unexpected lesson about the unnatural life and death of dolphins in captivity when two dolphins collided as they leapt out of the water during a trick. One dolphin, “Sharky,” died shortly after. Sea World dismissed the death as “an unfortunate, random incident” and shows quickly resumed.

Sharky’s death is even more tragic when you consider that, if not for the greed and arrogance of the marine park industry, she likely would have been swimming free in the ocean today. Sea World acquired Sharky in April 1982 after she was violently captured in the ocean and torn from her family for life in a concrete tank.

The death of this dolphin was an accident, but it should never have happened.

On Saturday, 16-year-old Kendrick Morris was arrested and charged with the rape of a young woman who was returning books at the public library in Bloomingdale, a Tampa suburb. Today investigators announced that he is also a suspect in a rape that occured last summer.

Kendrick’s neighbors told local media that they were shocked at the charges; one man suggested, “I didn’t think he’d hurt a fly.” But Kendrick Morris has done much more than that. According to The St. Petersburg Times, in October 2004 he was charged with animal cruelty after he “beat a duck with a stick until it was unconscious.”  The paper quoted Marti Ryan, a spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Animal Services, who noted the connection between animal cruelty and other violent crime, “This is how it starts, and you shouldn’t ignore it.”

It is important to stress that Kendrick Morris has not been found guilty of last week’s rape, and we don’t know the outcome of his previous arrest, but perhaps the young man could have benefitted from psychological counseling following his animal cruelty arrest and today’s crimes could have been prevented?

If there was an award for vegetarian athlete of the year, we’d nominate Morgan Kain. The senior weightlifter at Port Orange’s Spruce Creek High School was ranked No. 1 in the state this year in the 154-pound division. At last weekend’s state championships in Daytona Beach, he bench-pressed 280 pounds and completed a clean and jerk of 275, but unfortunately came in a close second place to Will Jones from Niceville High School.

Morgan has been a vegetarian his entire life. “By the time I was old enough to realize there was something in my diet that I didn’t have I just didn’t really want it,” he explained in an article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Morgan described how his diet has been a source of discussion throughout high school, “I get protein from a lot of sources. You can do it without eating meat. There’s lots of variety,” Kain said. “People say, ‘You must just eat salad and fruit’ and it’s not like that at all.”

And if his animal-friendly diet wasn’t enough, Morgan has a 4.36 grade-point average and academic scholarship offers from two major universities. Congratulations Morgan!

Last week, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission gave final approval to an ordinance adding the word “guardian” to references of animal “ownership” in the city’s code of ordinances (the ordinance will now refer to “ownership and/or guardianship”). Fort Lauderdale is the first municipality in Florida to make such a change.

“Guardian” is a much better word to describe the relationship people have with the animals they share their lives with. Most people recognize animals as individuals, not objects; they do not consider dogs or cats to be their property.

Although the addition of “guardian” in Fort Lauderdale’s ordinance does not affect the legal status of animals, a simple change in language can be important in changing public attitudes about animals

A troupe of patas monkeys escaped over the weekend from a new animal attraction called Safari Wild, north of Lakeland (10850 Moore Road).

Home for the monkeys had been an island surround by a moat on the property. According to an article in the Tampa Tribune, “On Saturday, a female with a baby on her back went into the water and swam across. The rest of the troupe followed.” Lex Salisbury, Safari Wild’s president, said he thought the water would be enough of a barrier to keep the monkeys confined. But the monkeys not only weren’t afraid of going in the water, they also climbed over two fences to make their escape into rural Polk County. Salisbury said it could take a week or more to locate and recapture the animals. The incident should be a wake-up call for Safari Wild’s neighbors.

When he is not working to expand his private collection of exotic animals, Lex Salisbury* keeps busy as the President/CEO of Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. Salisbury has stated that his plans for Safari Wild include giraffes, zebras and even elephants. (The facility could also be a dumping ground for Lowry Park Zoo’s surplus animals.)

You Can Help
Please contact the Polk County Commission and urge them– for the welfare of animals and the safety of the public–  to take a close look at Lex Salisbury’s plans for Safari Wild. In light of the recent escape, perhaps a new zoo is not the best thing for the county.

Contact:
Commissioner Sam Johnson (Chairman)
E-mail: samjohnson@polk-county.net

Commissioner Jean Reed (Vice Chairman)
E-mail: jeanreed@polk-county.net

Commissioner Bob English
E-mail: bobenglish@polk-county.net

Commissioner Randy Wilkinson
E-mail: randywilkinson@polk-county.net

Commissioner Jack Myers
E-mail: jackmyers@polk-county.net

For more information about Lex Salisbury and the Lowry Park Zoo, we recommend visiting Tampa’s Zoo Advocates, a very informative website maintained by a former zoo employee.

*Salisbury is also a founding member of The Zoological Association of America, an organization that promotes the private breeding and sale of exotic animals. It’s stated mission is to “Protect and defend the right to own animals” and “Defend the owners of animals against the false allegations and mischaracterizations of animal rights activists.” Members of the group include disreputable zoos, such as Miami’s Jungle Island, who have been denied accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Last weekend, an amazing group of ARFF volunteers and University of Central Florida student activists spoke out against animal abuse at the Shrine Circus in Orlando. Before and after each show, we met circusgoers at the entrance to UCF Arena. We distributed over 5000 pieces of literature about the circus and enjoyed many positive conversations with families.

One young woman who received a circus dvd from us after attending the circus on Saturday night brought the dvd home and watched it with her mom. They were so disgusted that they went to Wal-Mart and bought poster board, made signs, and came to help us on Sunday!

Needless to say, the Shriners weren’t happy. They didn’t like our chants (”Animal cruelty isn’t right, how do Shriners sleep at night?!”) and they didn’t like it when we pointed out that their own disclaimer in the circus program states that proceeds from the circus do not benefit Shriners Hospitals. And they must have really been unhappy when the UCF campus newspaper, Central Florida Future, published an editorial urging the university to cut its ties with the circus. The editorial concluded, “The time has come to end the circus at UCF. It is no longer fun and games at the circus, and the people are aware of it. The contract must not be renewed.”

During our protests, we heard reports that an elephant giving rides was limping and holding up her leg, and we witnessed rough treatment of “Gus,” the Bahia Shriners’ camel. ARFF volunteers ran into a circus employee after the demonstration at a pizza restaurant. The employee shared his opinion on the cruel training of circus animals, “I hit my kids, you have to hit the animals the same when they act up. It’s all about respect, you’re in charge.”

You Can Help
There are six Shrine temples in Florida that sponsor animal circuses. Without the support of the Shriners, it is likely that several circuses would go out of business. Please join us on May 1 at the Florida Shrine Association 2008 Convention in Orlando and help us convince Florida’s Shriners to replace circuses with non-animal fundraisers. Visit our website calendar for details.

Sunday’s Northwest Florida Daily News included a story about a man in DeFuniak Springs who purchased eggs from a small produce stand and was shocked to later discover a partially developed embryo when he sat down to eat (it must have been a slow news day). The paper explained, “When Dearon Carroll boiled three farm-stand eggs for lunch last week, the last thing he expected to find was a chicken.” Carroll said: “I was fixin’ to eat it. . . . I just happened to see it and said, ‘There’s something wrong here.’ I could see its eyes, beak. You could see its feet underneath it.”

It says a lot about our relationship to the animals (and animal products) we eat that we are shocked to find something identifiable– eyes or a beak– in our food. (Mr. Carroll was so disturbed that he filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture.) It is certainly easier to believe that eggs come from the grocery store, not from a chicken. Perhaps the shocking thing should be not that Mr. Carroll found a fertilized egg, but why it is rare.

In Florida’s egg industry, it is next to impossible for a male and a female chicken to mate and produce fertile eggs, and then for the hen to nest and incubate the eggs. On the industrial-size egg farms where most eggs come from, as many as 100,000 hens may be crammed into a single building, but there is not a male chicken to be found. In the industry’s hatcheries, male chicks are separated from females shortly after birth. Male chicks are of little economic value and they are killed, usually by the cheapest (cruelest) means available. If by chance a male chick was missed at the hatchery, the bare wire cages used in egg farms make it impossible for a hen to build a nest in which to lay her eggs. The cages are so small and crowded that the chickens are unable to even stretch their wings! Even if an egg had been fertilized, the angled cage floors roll eggs onto a conveyor belt, frustrating the hen’s instinct to warm the egg (fertilized eggs must be incubated to form a chick).

Hopefully, last week’s “discovery” will not only remind us that eggs come from chickens, but also cause us to think about the sad lives of chickens in modern egg farms.