News for Florida animal advocates

The new (Sept+Oct)] issue of VegNews magazine lists Tampa’s Grass Root restaurant as one of the “20 Best Restaurants for Everyday Dining.” From their review: “Menu items at this funky restaurant- housed in a 1920s building that used to be a baking company- are clearly marked raw, vegan or vegetarian.” Menu items include “curried potatoes […]

Today, the Marco Island Sun-Times reported that a “cat-killing coyote” has been caught at a local golf course.
The Island Country Club set live traps to catch coyotes after people living on the golf course complained about cats disappearing.
It is true that coyotes sometimes kill cats, but the “missing” cats on Marco Island could just as […]

Darryl Lee Atkinson, founder of the Horseshoe Creek Wildlife Foundation in Davenport was arrested on September 5 and charged with two counts of “Failure to meet minimum wildlife cage requirements.” He was released after two days in the Polk County Jail.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found that Atkinson was keeping a […]

An iguana in Broward County narrowly escaped serious injury recently when someone shot him with a crossbow arrow.
The arrow was removed from the iguana’s back, and the animal appears to be O.K.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that the perpetrator, if caught, could face charges of felony animal cruelty.
People who live along the South Fork Middle River have […]

Today’s St. Petersburg Times published a letter to the editor from ARFF’s President:
“Nothing entertaining about greased pigs
Re: Pig catching rubs some the wrong way, Sept. 4.
The article about last weekend’s greased pig contest at the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City was refreshing for its honesty. The writer’s description of the torment of pigs, despite […]

Today, WFOR-TV (CBS channel 4 in south Florida) reported the arrest of a Miami-area man who, “was luring the ducks in his complex by feeding them bread, then he would shoot the unsuspecting ducks with a BB gun,” cook and eat the animals.
Miami-Dade police arrested Ranyer Rodriguez Hernandez and charged him with cruelty to animals […]

On Friday, the website of the Palm Beach Post featured a wonderful series of photographs about the rescue of Muscovy ducklings who had fallen into a drainage pipe at an apartment complex.
The maintenance man at Indian Pines in Stuart is Ted Greck. From the Post: “Greck, with his miniature pinscher Shotzy riding shotgun on the […]

Last weekend, one dead sea turtle and another injured turtle were found in an intake canal at the Progress Energy plant in Crystal River (one end of the canal has screens to keep big objects away from pumps).
The injured turtle was taken to a rehabilitation center, where a veterinarian removed a large amount of fishing […]

Today’s Sun-Sentinel published a great letter by Judith Fish of Coconut Creek:

“I cringed when I read your articles on Aug. 25, ‘hailing’ the beginning of hunting season in South Florida. I cannot for a moment imagine intruding on an animal’s own habitat, and shooting and killing it for fun.
It never ceases to amaze me that […]

Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Fort Pierce, was the subject of an Associated Press story that appeared this week in several Florida newspapers, including the Sun-Sentinel.
In the article, sanctuary founder Carol Noon spoke strongly against the use of chimpanzees in research, as well as in entertainment (she even refused to pose with a baby […]