News for Florida animal advocates

Last week, the National Retail Federation announced its list of top 10 retailers for customer service (the top 10 were selected by surveying 8,500 shoppers). It appears that avoiding the cruelty of fur also means an enjoyable shopping experience.
The national retailers on the list include JC Penney, Lands’ End, LL Bean, Coldwater Creek, HSN and […]

Volunteers and veterinarians from the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida are working feverishly to evaluate the health of the estimated 600 cats who were surrendered last week by the 10th Life “sanctuary” in Hendry County (read our previous posts here and here). Although many of the cats will require veterinary care, […]

On Monday, the Cole Bros. Circus arrives in Cape Coral for three days of shows.
Elephants in traveling circuses commonly suffer from neglect, inadequate veterinary care and inhumane handling. The Cole Bros. Circus has a particularly poor reputation. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited Cole Bros. after a handler struck an elephant with […]

Last week we wrote about serious problems at the 10th Life cat “sanctuary” in Hendry County. Yesterday, WBBH-TV Ch. 2 reported that Maury Swee, 10th Life’s president, has “voluntarily surrendered all the cats from 10th Life and has signed a document saying he won’t accept any more cats for now.” Reportedly, Mr. Swee is under […]

Last month, a young boy caught a red-bellied piranha while fishing in a retention pond in Palm Springs. 10 days later another piranha was caught in the same pond. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) believes the piranhas were dumped in the pond from someone’s aquarium.
It’s not known who dumped the piranha into […]

There’s an expression about how to deal with bad situations: when you’re stuck in a hole, stop digging. It’s a concept that hasn’t been embraced by Maury Swee, president of The 10th Life Sanctuary, Inc. in Hendry County.
A couple weeks ago, a video appeared on YouTube (click here to view) showing horrible conditions inside the […]

This week’s issue of News & Views, the online newsletter of The Scripps Research Institute, included a profile of Shuji Kishi, an assistant professor in Scripps Florida’s Department of Metabolism and Aging. When he arrived at Scripps earlier this year from Harvard Medical School he brought with him approximately 2,500 zebrafish (Kishi plans to grow […]

Florida’s first-ever python hunt ended on October 31. A total of 39 pythons were found and killed on state-owned land during the 3 1/2-month long hunt. (A larger number of pythons have been removed from Everglades National Park.)
Most experts agree that the number of pythons now living in the wild in Florida is in the […]

On Tuesday morning, 150 people crowded into the Martin County Commission Chambers for a public hearing about whether hunting camps should be allowed on agricultural land in the county. (The county commission does not have the authority to regulate hunting, but hunting camps need county approval to offer overnight lodging and food service.)
The debate centers […]