Florida Animal Law

FWC: Be careful! Sea turtles laying eggs on Florida beaches from March through October

2012-03-15T07:47:00.000-04:00

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking visitors to Florida beaches to be careful and watch out for sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. The nesting season starts this month and lasts through October. Five different types of turtles nest on Florida shores, all of which are threatened or endangered.

Check out FWC's sea turtle nesting slideshow here. For more information on sea turtles, go to MyFWC.com/SeaTurtle.

Law would allow sale of dyed animals

2012-03-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

The Orlando Sentinel reports that one of the bills that passed late in the legislative session would overturn the current law that prevents the sale of animals that have been dyed. The bills sponsor indicates in the article that the sale of bunnies and chicks that are days old was an unintended consequence of the bill. Various animal groups have labeled the practice as animal cruelty and are urging the Governor to veto the measure.

Governor Rick Scott officially proclaims 4th Annual Florida Week for the Animals February 4-12, 2012

2012-02-03T07:12:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone - and thank you for still checking in during my latest and longest hiatus from posting. Florida Animal Law has continued to advance in leaps and bounds, even in the absence of posts. I'm going to be adding new material soon, but wanted to send out the press release below and the website for a list of events. Have a great Week for Animals!

Governor Rick Scott officially proclaims

4th Annual Florida Week for the Animals February 4-12, 2012!

(Tallahassee, FL) Governor Rick Scott has proclaimed Florida Week for the Animals that is designed to celebrate and build awareness on behalf of all animals, as well as recognize the organizations and citizens who support them. Florida Week for the Animals is bringing together educators, advocates, animal shelters, rescue organizations, sanctuaries, businesses, students, artists and community leaders in an exciting week of community-building activities. Over 100 events will be featured.

The exciting week will feature awesome pet adoption festivals and events, pet therapy in hospitals, school/art displays and activities, veggie events, horse events, educational activities, bird watching/walking tours, kid’s art days, library and R.E.A.D. dog activities, blessings of the animals, book signings, low cost and free spay and neuter opportunities, volunteer appreciation days, meet and greet events, pet therapy in classrooms, salute to working/search & rescue K-9’s, Eglin Air Force thank you, sanctuary activities and much more!

All these events will shine the spotlight on the amazing animals and compassionate people of Florida who love them. The week presents a unique opportunity to change the history for the animals by collectively coming together.

Precious lives which will be saved and communities will be transformed during this week through a wide variety of animal-related events and activities. Special events are being scheduled and can be viewed on the website calendar, and more are being added regularly. If you would like to learn more, become involved, list an event, please call 877-454-0807 or visit the official website at http://www.floridaanimals.org/

Animal Law Forum - April 2 in Orlando at Barry Law School

2011-03-31T22:18:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the another long posting hiatus, but I wanted to mention that the Barry Law School will be holding a animal law forum this Saturday in Orlando. There are a number of great speakers and topics, including Adam Karp, who is a nationally recognized name in the area of animal law. Hope to see you there!

USDA acknowledges role in mass bird death

2011-01-21T07:18:00.001-05:00

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article about the USDA's "Bye Bye Blackbird" program that was started in the 1960s to kill birds on behalf of farmers. While the agency denies any role in the mass deaths in Louisiana and Arkansas, it did admit to using a poison to kill 5,000 birds that died in South Dakota. The birds were apparently defecating in a farmer's cattle feed across state lines in Nebraska.

The article also links to a chart that lists the number of animals that were taken by the USDA in 2009. In 2009 alone more than 4 million red-winged blackbirds, starlings, cowbirds, and grackles were killed. Moreover, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allows blackbirds, starlings, and grackles to be killed under so-called depredation orders. These killings are undertaken by private contractors that do not need to report the culls to any authority.

Bill to ban crush videos passes Congress, sent on to President for signature

2010-11-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

After the Supreme Court struck down the ban on depictions of animal cruelty as a violation of the 1st Amendment, animal advocates have been urging Congress to enact a narrower law to address crush videos. HSUS reports that the bill has passed the Senate and is being sent on to President Obama for his signature. Wayne Pacelle's blog entry on passage of the bill is also being linked to over at the Huffington Post.

Move to Limit Factory Farming Gains Momentum

2010-08-12T07:09:00.006-04:00

The New York Times reports on a deal in Ohio that will curb some of the worst practices in factory farming, such as battery cages for egg-laying chickens, veal crates for calves, and gestation crates for pregnant pigs. The article briefly references the less-sweeping restrictions that were adopted in Florida. The article also features several quotes by Wayne Pacelle, the chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.

Oil Spill: News roundup

2010-08-10T07:58:00.000-04:00

Scientists Discuss Potential Impacts of Oil Exposure on Florida Keys (Natural Resources Defense Council).
Gulf Coast Turtle hatchlings released on Florida's east coast (CNN).
NOAA: Impact of spill to linger for decades (Atlanta Journal Constitution).
20 turtles found in oil flown to Florida, 6 arrive at Mote. (Bradenton Herald).
Gulf Rescuers Find Lesson, Hope in Oiled Birds, 89 Turtle Eggs (Bloomberg).

FWC cracks down on illegal internet sales

2010-08-10T07:41:00.000-04:00

WINK News reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's Internet Crimes Unit is cracking down on illegal sales of wildlife on the Internet. In just the past six months, FWC has made 151 arrests and issued 51 warnings. To report wildlife law violations, including illegal Internet sales, visit MyFWC.com/Violation or call 888-404-FWCC (3922).

Animal intelligence underestimated

2010-08-10T07:30:00.001-04:00

The news stand edition Time Magazine has a cover story this month on animal intelligence. The web has an excerpt, but the full article focuses on how science has underestimated animals' abilities to think and their cognition of the world around them.

USFWS releases new endangered species bulletin

2010-08-02T19:29:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released its Spring 2010 Endangered Species Bulletin. It is available in two parts as a pdf download and features articles on International Wildlife Conservation.

Kagan questioned on depictions of animal cruelty case

2010-07-02T06:37:00.000-04:00

While I did not write about it at the time, I was disappointed, but not surprised, by the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Stevens, which struck down the federal law prohibiting depictions of animal cruelty. If you haven't had the chance to read it, I'd encourage you to at a minimum read Justice Alito's dissent. The opinion is available from the Supreme Court's website at this link. Justice Alito correctly criticized the majority's reliance on speculative and hypothetical cases that have not and would not be prosecuted under the law, such as hunting videos or depictions of animals being slaughtered for food. Justice Alito focused his decision on addressing the actual case before the court that involved dog fighting videos and discussing the "crush videos' that the law was designed to combat.

I wanted to write a brief post now, because the decision came up again yesterday during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. As Solicitor General, Kagan's office had defended the law, but during the hearing Kagan stated that the law was drafted in a way that made it difficult to defend from a First Amendment perspective. Josh Gernstein at Politico notes that the questioning came from Orrin Hatch. While both Hatch and Kagan agreed on the difficulty of defending the statute based on the way it was drafted, Kagan also pointed to Justice Alito's dissenting opinion as proof that the arguments he office made in defending the law were not without merit.

While it's impossible to say with any certainty, based on her comments, it's doubtful that Kagan would have been a second vote in favor of upholding the law had she been on the Court. Nevertheless, there are moves afoot in Congress to revive the law and be more precise in its drafting in order to address any First Amendment concerns. Hopefully, Kagan will be supportive of this new law in the event that it is challenged.

Advances in Animal Law

2010-06-14T23:45:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to an interesting article from the Examiner that points out a few interesting facts about the development of the field of animal law. The author notes that ten years ago only nine law schools offered courses or training in animal law, but today more than 90 universities do so. The author also states that professional interest in the field of animal law is outpacing demand. Most new lawyers that have had this animal law training in school take jobs in firms that focus on other areas of law. They only take animal law cases as pro bono work or when the rare opportunity arises in their practice area.

I agree with this sentiment generally. I still know only a handful of attorneys that practice animal law exclusively and make ends meet. However, I do think that the metrics on this are changing. Given the number of people that write to me requesting free legal advice (please read my disclaimer) the demand is out there - potential clients just may not realize yet that animal law is no different than any other legal advice, i.e., you get what you pay for.

H/T to The Gavel

News Roundup

2010-06-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

Polk County's recent animal seizures and the oil spill dominate the news in Florida:

Cost of care for 261 neglected dogs reaches $92,000 (News Chief).
Animal Deaths from Oil Spill Only Now Becoming Known (All Headline News).
Polk Animal Shelter Over Capacity but Managing (Tampa Bay Online).
Will Birds Survive? Local Sanctuaries Train for Triage (Palm Beach Post).
62 dogs Seized From Home; Sheriff Issues Plea to Animal Rescue Groups (Lakeland Ledger).
Miss Florida USA Event Gets Protested for Fur "Prizes" (Broward New Times Blog).
Rescued Horses Need Help (WSVN-TV).
Inmates Help Care for 748 Animals (Care2.com).

Wizard of Claws owner back in court

2010-05-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

The Sun Sentinel reported on a court hearing involving the former owners of the Wizard of Claws and the possibility that they may have breached the settlement agreement that resolved an earlier lawsuit. See previous posts here and here. The latest court appearance follows an earlier hearing where the judge ordered the owners to cease selling dogs.

5th Edition of Animal Protection Laws of the United States and Canada Now Available

2010-04-28T22:50:00.000-04:00

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has released the 5th Edition of its Animal Protection Laws of the United States and Canada. The compendium is more than 3,800 pages and contains a detailed survey of the general animal protection and related laws for almost every jurisdiction you can think of in the U.S. and Canada. You can run searches or click on the particular geographical area you are interested in researching. Best of all, its available as a complimentary download, (or for the modest price of $8.99 you can get it on CD). If you've used this before, you know what an excellent resource it is and should get the new edition. If you haven't used it previously, what are you waiting for?

New Animal Law Blog : Law, Politics, & Animal Rights

2010-04-27T07:56:00.001-04:00

I've been cleaning up broken links over the past week and doing some general maintenance. One of the new additions to the Animal Blogs is worth noting. Be sure to check out the new Law, Politics & Animal Rights blog. The blog's author is Tampa attorney Mindi Lasley who works for various animal charities and lectures on topics related to Florida animal law. Her early posts are incredibly informative and focus on diverse subjects such as the 2010 Whaling Commission Conference, reasons to boycott the circus, and wild animals in captivity. There is also a post on the Supreme Court's recent decision striking down the federal law that prohibited the sale and trade of depictions of animal cruelty.

Public meetings on fox and coyote penning in Tallahassee & Gainesville

2010-04-21T07:29:00.002-04:00

As noted in previous posts here and here, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ("FWC") is considering a ban on fox and coyote pens. FWC plans to hold meetings to collect public in Gainesville on April 26th and in Tallahassee on May 4th.
The barbaric practice involve throwing foxes and coyotes that have been captured in the wild inside enclosures where they run for their lives from dogs who are judged on how they chase the fenced foxes and coyotes. The dogs often injure or kill the animals, leading to a constant demand for fresh wildlife to restock the enclosures.

Hope that you can attend. The dates, times, and locations of the meetings, as well as links to RSVP from HSUS are listed below.

Gainesville:
Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Address:
Hilton University of Florida Conference Center
1714 SW 34th Street
Gainesville, FL 32607

If you'd like to attend this Gainesville event you can RSVP here.

Tallahassee:
Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Address:
Holiday Inn, North I-10 & US 27
2725 Graves Road
Tallahassee, FL 32303

If you'd like to attend this Tallahassee event you can RSVP here.

Bioengineering as a substitute to animal testing

2010-04-16T07:15:00.000-04:00

Science Daily is one of my favorite websites. Yesterday they had an article about new research in the area of tissue engineering that should reduce the number of animals used in tests. The article mentions that current USDA regulations mandate animal testing for new drugs. Tens of millions of animals are killed or maimed each year in the name of researching the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, agricultural chemicals and consumer products. Animal testing slows the ability to get new products to market and is often not an accurate way to predict human reactions to drugs.

Scientists and regulators concerned about diseased bushmeat entering the country

2010-04-16T07:14:00.001-04:00

Earlier in the week, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about the discovery of strains of a virus related to HIV in illegal shipments of bushmeat from Africa. The article quotes Richard Ruggiero who works on international bushmeat issues for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

It is like "any other illegal commodity," Mr. Ruggiero said. "It's a clandestine industry. They sell it in clandestine networks." He added that many of the smuggled meats are from endangered species.
"In Africa today, many wildlife populations are being eaten to extinction," Mr. Ruggiero said. "The greatest impact to wildlife populations in Africa is the bushmeat trade."

Part of the problem in eradicating the bushmeat trade are the low fines and lack of prosecutions for those that are caught. The article notes that a Liberian immigrant on Staten Island that was charged was only given probation for smuggling and selling meat from monkeys.

8 Law schools offer Animal Law courses in Florida

2010-04-07T13:55:00.000-04:00

I had previously posted that seven of Florida's ten law schools now offer classes in animal law. A commenter noted that one of the schools I didn't mention, Barry Law School in Orlando, is offering an animal law seminar this Spring. See a list of all the courses offered nationwide at the Animal Legal Defense Fund's website.

FWC institues provisional ban of fox & coyote penning

2010-02-25T07:35:00.001-05:00

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) voted last week to prohibit the practice of fox and coyote penning at least until it reconsiders the issue in June. FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said he leaned toward an outright ban of the practice, stating "I'm not sure I'll support the draft rules when they come back," Barreto said. "I don't see any sport in the animals' having no escape. I personally don't agree with the practice." The Humane Society of the United states welcomed the decision to crack down on the cruel practice:

"We thank Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto and the commissioners for their leadership on fox and coyote penning," said Jennifer Hobgood, Florida state director for The HSUS. "Controlling these facilities has long proved next to impossible — escape isn't the point of the game. We urge the commission to enact a complete ban when it revisits the issue in June."

President of HSUS Wayne Pacelle also addressed the issue in a post at his blog, noting that one man who spoke to the commissioners drove more than 300 miles just to tell the commission that he was a Florida citizen and would not tolerate cruel fox pens.

Calls to end fox and coyote penning to be heard tomorrow

2010-02-16T07:26:00.002-05:00

An article in yesterday's Tallahassee Democrat describes the horrific practice of fox and coyote penning and the reasons that it should be abolished in the state of Florida. The Humane Society of the United States has described the practice where trapped foxes and coyotes are released into fenced pens where there is no escape where they can be ripped apart by dogs in staged competitions. Transportation of these animals can also spread disease and parasites, such as rabies, distemper and tapeworms. Aside from the disease risk, the pens amount to little more than a circumvention of animal fighting laws. A family that lived next to one of the pens started the website Training Not Torture that describes in detail the cruelty they witnessed.

Just this past November, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ("FWC") arrested 12 individuals for purchasing and possessing live foxes and coyotes for use in pens. Now, FWC is considering how to deal with the pens and has scheduled a meeting for input from the public on Wednesday, February 17th at 8:30 at the Franklin County Courthouse in Apalachicola, Florida. The fox pen issue may be heard starting around 10:00, but those who are interested in attending our encouraged to arrive early and let the FWC know that the practice should be banned outright. Information about the meeting:

What: FWC Meeting
Where: Franklin County Courthouse, 3rd Floor Courtroom, 33 Market Street, Apalachicola, FL 32320
When: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 8:30 AM

In addition to attending the meeting, HSUS is encouraging individuals to contact their state representative and senators to request that they ask FWC to ban the pens. You can also call the FWC commissioners' line and express your opposition, asking that they please ban fox and coyote pens: (850) 488-4676.

For additional information, please contact Jen Hobgood, Florida State Director, The Humane Society of the United States. jhobgood@humanesociety.org or (850) 386-3435.

Florida Coastal students win national animal law moot court competition

2010-02-11T22:24:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to Angelina Zon and Joseph Grant from Florida Coastal School of Law on winning the 2010 National Animal Law Competitions at Harvard Law School last weekend. From the Florida Coastal Law School's website:

A Coastal Law team won the National Animal Law Moot Court Competition held this weekend at the Harvard Law School. The brief writers/oralists were Joseph Grant and Angelina (Angie) Zon. Avery Sander was the Team Manager and Adjunct Professor Nick Martino coached the team. In winning the championship the Florida Coastal team out-paced over twenty teams from law schools such as Harvard, the University of Washington, Lewis & Clark, South Texas, Louisville, Michigan State and Pace. In addition to winning the championship, the Florida Coastal team also placed second for the Best Brief Award. The President of Florida Coastal's Animal Law Society, Julie Hodges, was instrumental in supporting the team.

Read more about the competition here and here.

Florida wildlife watching brings in $3 billion a year

2010-02-02T07:35:00.000-05:00

Tampa Bay Online reports that more people travel to Florida to watch wildlife than any other state. The visitors bring in more than $3 billion to the state and support 19,000 retail jobs. Furthermore, one in six Floridians participate in some form of wildlife watching.