News for Florida animal advocates

This week the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the unit of the United States Department of Agriculture that is responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, made available on its website thousands of reports from inspections at circuses, roadside zoos and commercial animal breeders and dealers. To access the inspection reports, visit the […]

Max the cat and Charlie the dog star in a new and improved website promoting the “Animal Friend” spay and neuter specialty license plate.
Hundreds of thousands of unwanted dogs and cats are killed each year in Florida. The Animal Friend license plate helps decrease pet overpopulation by supporting organizations that offer free or low-cost spay […]

The cover story in this week’s New Times Broward-Palm Beach is an excellent look at the greyhound racing industry.
Earlier this year, reporter Michael Mooney adopted a retired 4-year-old greyhound- who came from the track with missing teeth and a limp from a broken leg. The article follows the reporter’s search for answers to questions like, […]

If you happened to drive past ArtsPark at Young Circle in downtown Hollywood early last Saturday, you would have seen an odd sight- a group of young women modeling fur coats. Saturday was a “pre tape session” for delegates of the Miss Florida USA and Miss Florida Teen USA pageants. The Fur Information Council of […]

The Delray Beach Film Festival kicks-off tonight and among this year’s films are several must-see films for animal advocates (and for the non-activist).

“Blinders” is an award-winning 50-minute documentary that exposes the truth behind New York City’s infamous horse-drawn carriage industry. The film uses hidden-camera footage and interviews with carriage drivers, veterinarians, accident witnesses, animal rights […]

In November 2008, the United States Department of Agriculture confiscated Ned, an Asian elephant, from a Florida circus trainer. Ned was the second elephant ever to be confiscated by the USDA.
At the time of his rescue, Ned was extremely thin. The photos of his condition- “skin and bones” would be an accurate description- are difficult […]

Following last month’s news that the City of Holly Hill enacted an ordinance requiring all healthy dogs and cats within the city to be spayed or neutered, this week we learned that the City of Deland has given initial approval to a spay/neuter ordinance of its own (the ordinance must pass a second reading on […]

Today the state health department confirmed several new cases of swine flu, bringing the total number in Florida to just under 70. Yesterday, Lakeland Ledger columnist Tom Palmer wrote about the outbreak. In his column, he noted that there is growing evidence that the recent outbreak originated in a community in southeastern Mexico that is home to […]

Today the Florida Legislature approved the 2009-10 state budget. Included in the $66.5 billion budget are numerous tax and fee increases, and spending cuts to social programs that help seniors, Alzheimer’s patients and foster kids, among other cuts. But deep within the 408-page budget is $150,000 for “Alligator Marketing and Education.” The money is to […]

Clyde “Bucky” Dennis enjoys killing animals. He has become known for hooking very large sharks, fighting them to exhaustion, then drawing the shark close to his boat and killing the suffering animal. Then he weighs the corpse, takes some photos and figures out what to do with the animals remains.
On Tuesday, Mr. Dennis killed a […]