News for Florida animal advocates

It has been interesting to watch the pet industry respond to proposed legislation to stop the import and interstate transport of pythons and other potentially-dangerous reptiles. One unusual response has been the not-so-vieled threats against the snakes and Florida’s fragile environment.
Last week, Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino spoke with Andrew Wyatt, a python breeder […]

Brookstone is a retailer known for products you can’t find anywhere else, but its latest gift idea is a dud.
The “Frog-O-Sphere,” available at Brookstone stores across Florida, is the fancy name given to a package that includes a small plastic aquarium, two African dwarf frogs, one snail, some gravel and a bamboo plant. The frogs […]

Florida’s pleasant climate makes our state a leader in oranges and other agricultural products, a popular destination for tourists and retirees, and a great place for animals of all kinds to settle down and start a family.
Florida’s growing population of iguanas and pythons have caught the public’s attention, but animals don’t have to be “exotic” […]

Broward County resident Colleen Ferro spoke with the Sun-Sentinel this week about making it into the top 10 of PETA’s “Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50″ contest. In the interview, Colleen talked about being vegan for over 18 years and her activism on behalf of animals, she gave a wonderful definition of vegans (”We are everyday people […]

Today, Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson did his part to aid America’s ailing pork industry by issuing a press release pleading with health officials and the media to stop using the term “swine flu.” Bronson claimed that use of the term is “contributing to the collapse of the pork industry.” (For the 100 million […]

At a secret location on a beach on Big Pine Key, in the Lower Florida Keys, a camera has been set up streaming live video of the action at a loggerhead sea turtle nest.
Of course, mother turtle covered her eggs with sand, so there’s not much to see right now. But if you’re lucky, you’ll […]

Saturday was opening day of Florida’s annual alligator hunt. Hunter’s arriving with their airboats at the Belle Glade Marina were greeted by protesters from the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. In an article about the protest in the Sun-Sentinel, ARFF spokesperson Don Anthony gave a blunt description of the hunt, “It’s bloody, it’s brutal and […]

It’s been over a week, and still no sign of Tom-Tom.
Tom-Tom is a large, white turkey who went missing on August 1 from the home of Lloyd Russell Sloan, Sr. in Milton, Florida. For the last two and a half years, Tom-Tom has been a member of the Sloan family. He enjoyed riding in the […]

Tuesday’s Miami Herald included a story about an advertising campaign by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The campaign features a Miami third grader, Jasmine Messiah, on posters going up in Washington, D.C. train stations (the ads are an effort to persuade Congress to require schools across the country to offer students more low-fat vegetarian […]

There was an interesting article in Tuesday’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune about the growing popularity of unpasteurized, “raw” milk. It is illegal in Florida to sell raw milk for human consumption because it can contain Listeria and E. coli (pasteurization is supposed to kill the bacteria), but you can get around the law by purchasing milk labeled […]