News for Florida animal advocates

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Yesterday, the City of Miami became the latest municipality in Florida to restrict the chaining of dogs. The City Commission voted unanimously to approve an ordinance to make it “unlawful for a responsible party to tether a dog while outdoors,” except when the dog is “visible to the responsible party at all times and the […]

In 2007 the last of America’s horse slaughterhouses closed after federal courts in Illinois and Texas upheld state laws banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption. This was a blow to men like Norman Franklin, from Ocala, Florida who for years supplied horses to the Dallas Crown slaughterhouse in Kaufman, Texas. We’re not sure […]

The tragedy of puppy mills received some much-needed attention last week.
Perhaps you saw Friday’s heartbreaking Oprah Winfrey Show which investigated puppy mills in Pennsylvania. Or maybe you read the article in Sunday’s Palm Beach Post about a private animal shelter in Boca Raton that rescued 40 dogs from a puppy mill in Missouri. The Post article included […]