News for Florida animal advocates

Yesterday, Governor Charlie Crist vetoed legislation (SB 900) that would have made it nearly impossible for citizens and grassroots groups in Florida to organize constitutional ballot initiatives. In 2002, citizens used the initiative process to ban the intensive confinement of pigs in gestation crates, one of factory farming’s worst abuses.
SB 900 was championed by the […]

“We teach them how to finish a product for the market.” The “product” that Mike Putnal of the Volusia County Fair Association is talking about in that sentence isn’t a wood cabinet or a ribbon-winning watermelon. He is referring to cows destined for the slaughterhouse.
A recent article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported on the […]

Most businesses protect their property with locks, fences, lights, cameras and security guards. Unfortunately, a few still turn to dogs. The life of a “guard” dog is one of loneliness and neglect. These dogs suffer through all types of weather extremes.
Heartless businesses in Fort Myers looking to rent a guard dog now will have to […]

Most Floridians don’t need to be reminded that exotic animals don’t make good pets. Sadly, almost every week there is an incident that illustrates the need for better laws to protect animals, people, and the environment. Most recently, on Sunday a man in Fort Myers discovered a 10-foot Burmese python on his patio.
While residents and […]

On Wednesday night at their meeting in Melbourne, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission nixed a proposal to allow homeowners to kill small “nuisance” alligators. (Currently, a licensed wildlife trapper must be contacted to capture, and relocate, alligators less than four feet long.) An ARFF representative spoke at the meeting against the proposal, arguing […]

On Tuesday, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived in Pensacola for a week of performances. To coincide with the arrival of the circus, the Humane Society of the United States released the results, so far, of a lawsuit filed by several animal welfare organizations charging Ringling Bros. with violations of the Endangered […]

On Saturday, five people in a horse-drawn carriage in St. Augustine were forced to jump to safety after the horse bolted and pulled the carriage for several blocks. Two of the passengers were injured, one seriously enough to require a trip to the hospital.
Thankfully, the horse was not injured. Horses in previous accidents in St. […]

In 2005, voters in Miami-Dade County chose not to allow slot machines at the county’s three parimutuel facilities, including the Flagler Dog Track. Since the vote, gambling proponents have been open about their intention to bring the issue back to the voters for another try.
At a meeting next Tuesday (June 12), the Governmental Operations and […]

In yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel, columnist Mike Thomas wrote about “our conflicted position on what we consider cruel.” He compared cockfighting to the factory farming of chickens and concluded that animals in both “die violently.” We agree.
In his column, Mr. Thomas provides an excellent summary of the life of “broiler” chickens (chickens raised for their flesh). […]

Tim Mahoney is the only Florida Congressman on the House Agriculture Committee. During a committee meeting last week, Mahoney voted in favor of an amendment to the 2007 Farm Bill that grants $12 million in government subsidies to veal farmers.
Perhaps Congressman Mahoney is not aware that the majority of Americans oppose veal production on moral […]