News for Florida animal advocates

Publix has opened its second GreenWise Market store, in Boca Raton. (The first GreenWise opened last year in Palm Beach Gardens and a third store is scheduled to open in Tampa in December.) The GreenWise stores offer a wide selection of organic foods and earth-friendly products, but also stock some conventional items “for customer convenience.” […]

Earlier this year, Bruegger’s, a nationwide chain of bakery-cafés, announced that it would stop using eggs from caged hens in its restaurants in Vermont and western Massachusetts (in 2007, Bruegger’s stopped using battery-cage eggs at its Wisconsin locations).
Activists in Tallahassee have been trying to convince Bruegger’s to make a similar change at its three locations […]

Earlier this month, dozens of dead rats were found on the side of a road in Ocala, along with plastic containers filled with wood shavings. Were they cast-off from a research laboratory? Were the carcasses a health threat? This week we learned that the rats instead came from a failed reptile business. According to an […]

Good news. This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act with an impressive vote of 302-96 (with 35 members not present/voting). The bill would prohibit the interstate trade in primates sold as pets. (The bill is similar to the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which Congress passed in 2003, and which […]

On Tuesday, as many as 50 people rallied outside the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney’s Office in Viera demanding that prosecutors push for tough sentencing of Christine Abrams, if she is convicted in the cruel death of her German shepherd, “Ella.” Abrams is accused of abandoning the dog in a locked kennel without food or water. She […]

Yesterday, the Fort Pierce Tribune provided an update on plans to build the National Elephant Center in western St. Lucie County. In the article, center representatives highlighted plans for “elephant meander areas” up to 50 acres in size. This would be great if the center was intended as a sanctuary for the many elephants suffering […]

The death of the horse Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby last month has raised questions about the safety of horse racing. Last weekend the Associated Press released the results of a survey that found an average of three horses suffered lethal injuries each day at U.S. tracks in 2007. The AP added a footnote […]

When the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) met earlier this week in Dania Beach, they proposed a new rule that would limit the “harvest” of native, freshwater turtles to no more than five per day. If that number seems high to you, you’ll be surprised to learn that currently there are no limits […]

If there’s someone in your life who is leaning towards vegetarianism, there are two items on the web this week that would be great to share with them.
The first is a video on the website of the Sun-Sentinel newspaper that explains the dramatic environmental benefits of a vegan diet. Click here to watch the video.
Also, […]

Last week the Caribbean monk seal was officially declared extinct. There had not been a confirmed sighting since 1952, so the announcement by federal officials was not a surprise. But it was a sad acknowledgment that there is no longer any hope that survivors would somehow be discovered. These animals, who Columbus used to called […]