FWC institues provisional ban of fox & coyote penning

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

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

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

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. 

Humane Scorecard 2009

The Humane Society Legislative Fund has released its 2009 Humane Scorecard.  The Scorecard ranks members of Congress on their support or votes on important animal legislation.  Only Senator Nelson was ranked given the changeover between Senator Martinez and Senator Lemieux.  Nelson ranked a disappointing 33%.  On house side, Representative Wasserman-Schultz was the only house member to rank a perfect 100%, although representative Klein and former representative Wexler came in at 92% with no anti-animal positions.  Representative Miller ranked the lowest with a 0% and 8 anti-animal positions.

The HSLF blog posted some additional facts about the scorecard here and encourages people to communicate with their legislators about the scores.

2nd Annual Florida Week for the Animals Febraury 6-14, 2010

The second annual Florida Week for the Animals is slated for February 6 - 14, 2010 and there are a number of events scheduled around the state.  Check out the calendar of events here.

Banning the importation of pythons

The Sun Sentinel has an opinion article on the need to ban importation of the Burmese python.  Water management workers in South Florida captured 25 this month alone.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing rules that would ban the importation of the Burmese python along with 8 other large snakes that endanger the Everglades.  From the article:

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council opposes the proposed ban, claiming dealers and pet owners can regulate themselves. If that were true, you wouldn't have an estimated 100,000 snakes in the wild, nor would there be any need for the highly publicized hunts that make for photo ops but don't really solve the problem.

These snakes should never be allowed into the country in the first place. The only acceptable place to see one of these huge snakes is the zoo.

Read more about the proposed ban here from the Irrawaddy, covering Burma and South East Asia.

Ending Rattlesnake Roundups

The Tallahassee Democrat reports on the need to end rattlesnake roundups.  The "roundups" are annual rituals that involves pumping gas fumes into gopher tortoise burrows and collecting the eastern diamond back rattlesnakes that flee the fumes.  The article notes that the roundups are both unnecessary and inhumane.  In addition to harming and killing the snakes that are collected, the gas makes the burrows uninhabitable for years and adversely impacts threatened species such as gopher tortoises and indigo snakes.  Gassing the snakes is also illegal, according to a Georgia official quoted in the article.  At one point, there were twenty-three roundups, but only three still exist.  One of the former roundups in San Antonio, Florida, has changed to a festival supporting education and appreciation for the snakes.  Two of the three remaining roundups are in Whigham and Claxton, Georgia.  The article ends with the request that people stop attending:

The Whigham roundup will be held Saturday. The Claxton roundup is planned for March 13 and 14. If we don't attend, organizers will get the message that it's time to support another type of event that encourages conservation and preservation, rather than the wholesale slaughter of wildlife and the destruction of their habitats.

For more details, read "Effects of Rattlesnake Roundups on the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake," Feb. 2009, by D. Bruce Means, at http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_4/Issue_2/Means_2009.pdf.

Picture Source. 

Thanks for visiting!

Despite the absence of any new posts for the last month, sitemeter reports that there are still 100+ visits per day and there were more than 6000 page views last month.  The counter has also gone over 200,000 visits since we started.   One of the new year's resolutions I intend to keep is updating the blog with the many developments in animal law.  Stay tuned....

Technology Aims to Replace Animal Testing

U.S News and World Report has an interesting article about a new test designed to replace tests tests on mice and guinea pigs used to predict skin reactions from drugs and cosmetics.  The new test from the Hurel company uses human skin cells to simulate the body's allergic response to foreign chemicals.  According to the article the technology could eliminate the need for tens of thousands of test animals each year and could shave $100 million off the roughly $1 billion cost of developing a new drug.