News for Florida animal advocates

On Tuesday, a small group of animal advocates held a loud but peaceful protest outside the Palm Beach Puppies pet store in CityPlace, an outdoor mall in West Palm Beach. The protest itself was not unlike others that have taken place at pet store across Florida. What is notable is that the protest occurred at all.

Today’s Palm Beach Post reported that when activists gathered this week, “they unwittingly made history.” The protest was the first time since CityPlace opened 10 years ago that a protest was allowed to continue, while “security guards and city police stood idly by.”

The relaxed police response came shortly after a lawsuit was filed against CityPlace for refusing to allow public protest. (The suit followed a December incident in which police threatened activists with arrest for wearing anti-puppy-mill t-shirts at CityPlace.) Our hats off to those activists who knew their First Amendment rights and who refused to be deterred by police who appeared not to.

Coincidentally, Palm Beach Puppies was also the subject of attention in Orlando this week. Yesterday, WDBO-AM radio told the story of a woman who purchased a puppy at Palm Beach Puppies’ Orlando location. Shortly after she brought the puppy home, the puppy developed pneumonia (Palm Beach Puppies has refused to pay the woman’s vet bill). Today was part two of WDBO’s investigative report. According to papers that came with the puppy, the animal came from a breeder in Missouri with a history of violations related to “pest control, lack of sanitation, and improper housing facilities.”

Most puppies sold in pet stores in Florida come from puppy “mills.” These for-profit facilities breed dogs by the hundreds with little concern for the health and well-being of the animals. However well-intentioned, buying a pet store animal will quickly result in the animal being replaced by another, and will encourage pet stores and breeders to continue contributing to the pet overpopulation crisis.

If you know someone looking to add a dog to their family, encourage them to adopt from a shelter rather than purchasing an animal from a pet store!

On Tuesday, the 160 members of the Florida Legislature convened in Tallahassee to kick off the 2010 Legislative Session. For the next 60 days they’ll debate a number of important issues, including the following bills that would help animals in Florida:

• Senate Bill 104 and House Bill 1611 would prohibit sexual contact with animals. In recent years, there have been several disturbing cases of sexual abuse of animals in Florida. At its first committee hearing, S104 was unanimously approved. So far, so good!
• Senate Bill 318 and House Bill 709 would prohibit the possession, import, sale or breeding of several species of large reptiles, including the Burmese python, anaconda and Nile monitor. This legislation would benefit animal welfare, improve public safety and protect Florida’s environment. On Tuesday, HB 709 was reported favorably out of the Policy Council; S318 has also been approved by its first committee.
• Senate Bill 1708 and House Bill 765 would strengthen the State of Florida’s restrictions on the sale of horsemeat for human consumption, and increase the criminal penalties related to the unlawful slaughter of horses. On Wednesday, HB 765 was approved by the Agriculture & Natural Resources Policy Committee with a unanimous vote.
• Senate Bill 2372 and House Bill 1221 would require county’s and municipalities in Florida to collect a surcharge for each violation of an ordinance relating to animal cruelty or control; the surcharge would be used to subsidize the costs of spaying or neutering dogs and cats.

You Can Help
Please contact your state senator and state representative and ask that they support the bills mentioned above.

To find your elected officials, visit myFloridaHouse.gov and click the “Find Your Representative” button.

Visit ARFF’s website for updates on animal-related legislation.

It’s difficult to understand the hostility that some Floridians feel toward iguanas. These fascinating animals have been victims of horrible cruelty.

Today’s Florida Keys Keynoter reported the arrest of a man in Key Colony Beach who trapped iguanas on the seawall behind his house and then drowned the animals by dropping the trap into the water. Robert Schwartz was arrested on Monday and charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

In Florida, all animals– including iguanas– are protected from cruelty and inhumane killing. Unfortunately, iguanas do not always receive the protection they deserve. Please send the Key Colony Beach Police Department a quick thank you note for taking this case of animal cruelty seriously.

Contact:
Robert Petrick, Chief of Police
Key Colony Beach Police Department
E-mail: chief@keycolonybeach.net

Visit ARFF’s website for more information about iguanas.

For years, hunters chasing wild pigs have driven their trucks through Valerie Bindhammer’s property in Rockledge. Posting “No Trespassing” signs didn’t help. The last straw may have been when hunters dragged a pig down the street with a chain around his neck. “Somebody’s going to get hurt or killed down here,” she told Florida Today. Valerie and several of her neighbors contacted the city for help, and on February 17 the City of Rockledge City Council, citing public safety, voted unanimously to approve a temporary emergency ordinance prohibiting hunting within city limits. The ordinance will be revisted in six-months.

Please contact the mayor and city council and thank them for banning hunting within city limits. Ask them to make the ban permanent.

Contact:

Mayor Larry Schultz and City Council
Online comment form (select “Contact the Mayor & City Council” from the drop-down list).

Stray bullets has been the concern of Flagler County resident Tricia Kanawall ever since a property behind her home was leased by a hunter. She’s pleaded with county officials to, at the very least, enact a buffer between residences and hunting areas. County officials have not been receptive to her concerns, but the hunter told the Daytona Beach News-Journal last week that the lease has been terminated, “because of the outcry, it’s not worth it, he said.” (According to the paper, the hunter “asked not to be named.”) Way to go Tricia!

The death yesterday of a “trainer” at SeaWorld in Orlando has captured the attention of media around the world. ARFF spoke to the ABC affiliate in Palm Beach County (view here). If something good comes out of this tragedy, it might be that the incident has turned a spotlight to the issue of marine mammals in captivity. A headline in today’s Christian Science Monitor asked, “Do ‘killer whales’ belong in theme parks?” CBBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s children’s television channel, posted this question on its website, “Should animals be kept in captivity?” Several newspapers polled their readers. The Orlando Sentinel asked whether keeping orcas in captivity is cruel and dangerous. So far, the vast majority of voters have selected the response, “The activists are right. These creatures should be free, not kept in tanks and trained to perform tricks.”

One interesting fact that we found in the coverage was that only orcas in captivity pose a threat to humans. Nancy Black, a marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, told Fox News, “They have never killed a human in the wild.”

ARFF believes that Tilikum, as well as the orca Lolita at the Miami Seaquarium, and other orcas held captive at marine parks around the world, would be much better off returned to the wild. Visit ARFF’s website to learn more about the misery of marine mammals imprisoned in marine parks and aquariums.

Last week, it was announced that a seven-year-old from Tennessee had won the first ever Little Debbie Look-A-Like Contest. For some reason, Miss Florida USA 2010 Megan Clementi was a guest judge at the competition in Atlanta, Georgia. Even more perplexing was that Ms. Clementi showed up at the event wearing a full-length mink coat. (Pictures from the event are available on Miss Florida USA’s flickr page.) We doubt that the coat was her choice. The Fur Information Council of America has long been a sponsor of the Miss Florida USA pageant and most likely provided the coat for the event.

To be honest, the 10 finalists didn’t look scared. But they probably were not aware of the suffering of the 30 or 40 mink who were killed to make the coat.

Again this year, ARFF will protest outside the Miss Florida USA pageant in June (details will be available closer to the date on ARFF’s website). But you can help today by contacting the organizers of Miss Florida USA and letting them know that you are disappointed that the Fur Information Council of America is a sponsor of the pageant. Ask them not to include fur in future pageants.

Contact:

Tel-Air Interests, Inc.
Phone: (954) 924-4949
Fax: (954) 924-4980
E-mail: telair@aol.com

ARFF congratulates the contest winner, 7‐Year‐Old Rhea Lynne Conner From Monroe, Tennessee. A press release about the contest noted that Rhea wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up!

This week The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) met in Apalachicola. Probably the most talked-about item on the agenda was a discussion of fox penning. In this blood sport, dogs are encouraged to attack foxes and coyotes confined inside a fenced enclosure. The Commission voted to institute a temporary ban on fox penning and to revisit the issue at its June meeting. Foxes and coyotes are safe for now, and there seems to be support on the Commission to make the ban permanent. FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto stated in a news release, “I don’t see any sport in the animals’ having no escape. I personally don’t agree with the practice.” FWC Commissioner Dwight Stephenson described fox penning as, “a terrifying and cruel situation.” Thank you to everyone who contacted the FWC in response to ARFF’s recent e-mail alert (click here to join ARFF’s e-mail list).

Also during this week’s meeting, the FWC prohibited recreational and commercial killing of lemon sharks in Florida waters (lemon sharks can still be hunted in federal waters). The vote is intended to protect this slow-growing species of sharks.

Last week, New Times Broward-Palm Beach interviewed Chef Jamie Pruitt from Wild Olives restaurant in Boca Raton. When Chef Pruitt was asked, “If you came back in your next life as a food item, what would it be?”, his response was a surprise: “I’d like to come back as a duck. I think a lot of great things come from ducks, foie gras being one of them.” We wonder if Chef Pruitt is aware that birds raised for foie gras are force-fed enormous quantities of food through a long metal pipe several times a day? By the end of the force-feeding process, ducks are physically debilitated with livers five to ten times normal size and many are unable to stand or walk. Does he really want to be a duck on a foie gras farm? (Foie gras is not on the menu at Wild Olives.)

New Times also spoke to Micah Edelstein, executive chef at Miami’s Grass Restaurant and Lounge. When she was asked, “What food still confounds you?”, her answer was more informed: “I still want to know who thought it would be a good idea to cruelly overstuff a goose’s liver and make foie gras. The process repulses me and, actually, so does the item itself.” (The menu at Grass Restaurant has several vegan-friendly dishes!)

Is foie gras served at your favorite restaurant? Contact ARFF for help in convincing the restaurant to make a compassionate change.

Early last week, an ARFF member spotted a poster advertising performances of the Liebling Brothers Circus, February 12-14, in Sorrento, a town in Lake County. Liebling Brothers travels with a female African elephant named Nosey, two monkeys and several ponies. Knowing this circus’ horrible history of poor animal care, ARFF contacted Lake County to make sure– at the very least– that the circus had paid the required business tax and obtained the required permissions to set up its circus tent in the county. ARFF spoke to the tax collector, the zoning division and to code enforcement and learned that the circus had not contacted the county concerning the scheduled performances. A code enforcement officer went to Sorrento on Friday night and issued a notice of violation, but apparently the officer did not have the authority to stop the circus. ARFF has sent a letter to the Lake County Commission urging them to put teeth into their regulation of circuses. A circus should not be able to set up a large tent and sell tickets to the public, in violation of county regulations, without consequences. The circus itself was depressing. During the elephant act, Nosey crawls on her knees, and one of the monkeys is led around the ring by a chain while audience members throw cotton candy at him. Click here and here to watch video from last weekend’s show.

But it was not all bad news in Lake County. In March 2009, when the Liebling Brothers Circus appeared at the North Lake Flea Market in Fruitland Park, a spider monkey escaped from his cage before a performance. Reggie the monkey ran free in the wilds of Lake County for a month before being recaptured. ARFF recently contacted the flea market and learned that they have decided not to have the circus back in 2010! On Monday, an Orlando Sentinel blog wrote about the decision.

Click here to learn more about Nosey and other solitary performing elephants in Florida.

In May 2002, a dark secret of Florida’s dog racing industry was revealed with the arrest of Robert Rhodes, a former security guard at the Pensacola Greyhound Track. At his property across the state line in Alabama, investigators found mounds of bones and unearthed the carcasses of several recently-killed greyhounds. Rhodes confessed that for years he had been shooting and burying greyhounds sent to him from Florida tracks. Over the years Rhodes had killed as many as 3,000 greyhounds. At the time, the Baldwin County, Alabama district attorney explained, “These dogs were not unhealthy, they were just slow.”

One of the many trainers who sent dogs to Rhodes was Ursula O’Donnell. Last month, journalist Michael Mooney, writing in New Times Broward-Palm Beach, broke the story that O’Donnell is still working in Florida as a greyhound trainer (we’ve written before about Mooney’s excellent reporting on greyhound racing).

Although O’Donnell was charged with animal cruelty in 2002 following the discovery of the greyhound graveyard, the charges were dropped when Robert Rhodes died before trial.

In an update on Thursday, Mooney reported that trouble has continued to follow O’Donnell; for example, dogs trained by O’Donnell have tested positive for banned drugs, most recently in 2009. Click here to read more.

Greyhound advocates are asking people to contact Florida’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering and ask the Director to open an investigation, and consider revoking O’Donnell’s license. Click here to get involved.