Palm Beach County’s Itsy Bitsy Progress

It’s so rare that anything good happens in Palm Beach County when it comes to animals. We have months of polo and horse shows, Ringling Brothers and even the Walker Brothers circus come annually, and Busch Wildlife Sanctuary’s most recent fund raiser was a rodeo (in neighboring Martin County).

There’s dogfighting, of course, and lots of breeding, both "responsibly" and not, lobster "mini" season (a two day event where you can "bag" 12 lobsters), regular lobster season, alligator season and well, a fairly continuous open season on just about everyone except manatees and sea turtles.

Jeez, how can I forget Greyhound racing and horse racing?

We could look worse though, as we could’ve allowed Internet hunting to come to Florida, and due to a unanimous vote by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission this week, that won’t happen. Florida has become the 35th state to outlaw Internet hunting, thank heavens. Because legalizing that would’ve been really embarrassing. Forget that the hunters in favor of the ban made comments like: "It’s just a violation of all the ethics of fair chase," as if what they do is, you know, fair.

The other bit of progress is that Palm Beach County commissioners have approved a (watered-down) version of the spay/neuter ordinance that should help to decrease the number of unwanted cats and dogs, thereby decreasing the number killed by the county. Last year alone, just at Animal Care and Control, over 18,000 animals were killed, some because there was simply no space for them. (And note that there are other shelters in the county that also kill healthy animals, so the county’s number far exceeds 18,000.)

The spay and neuter plan has been one of the most controversial issues that county commissioners have considered since they debated plans for The Scripps Research Institute in 2006.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Scripps is building their 100-acre "research institute" for the terrorizing, mutilation and slaughter of rabbits, primates, cats and hamsters, and tens of thousands of mice and rats–1.5 miles from my house. But I digress.

The ridiculous things about the ordinance are that it doesn’t include breeders and it doesn’t even attempt to deal with the enormous feral cat problem. Here’s what the ordinance says:

• All pet owners are required to sterilize their animals.
• But they’re really not, because if they pay $75 for an "unaltered" license and sign an affidavit agreeing not to breed, the animals may remain unsterilized.
• Show dogs and service dogs are exempt.
• Breeders must get a permit and then may breed two litters each year. There is no cost for the first two tags if they register in the next 90 days. Thereafter there’s a $150 cost for each permit.

So there you have it. Breeders may continue to breed, feral cats will continue to breed, show dogs don’t have to be sterilized, and there’s no cost for a breeding permit.

And you can get out of sterilizing your animal for $75.

Still, this is a tiny step and if it prevents animals from being born just so they can be killed shortly thereafter, I have to support it.

At least Internet hunting’s illegal . . .  as of July 1.