News for Florida animal advocates

The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida and the BUAV, a UK animal protection organization, have vowed to campaign to try to block the establishment of a fourth monkey breeding facility in Florida. The plan has come to light following a tip that another company supplying monkeys to the U.S. research industry is looking to establish itself in the state. According to information leaked to the two organizations, PreLabs, a contract research organization in Chicago is collaborating with a primate company from Mauritius to purchase land on Wheeler Road in the City of Labelle (Hendry County). Biodia, the primate company in Mauritius, currently exports macaques to the U.S. research industry.

The three other primate facilities in Florida are Primate Products, Worldwide Primates and the Mannheimer Foundation. Primate Products has recently announced a collaboration with another Mauritius company called Cynologics. Mauritius is the world’s second largest exporter of monkeys for the research industry and is a major supplier of primates to the U.S., including those taken from the wild. A recent investigation by the BUAV uncovered the cruelty and suffering inflicted on the island’s wild population of long-tailed macaques.

If the proposal goes ahead, this will be devastating news for the monkeys on Mauritius. It will mean thousands of wild monkeys will be ripped from their homes and torn from their families, shipped to the U.S. and imprisoned in breeding farms to produce offspring who will suffer and die in laboratories. The cruelty and suffering inflicted on these highly social and intelligent animals is morally unacceptable.

Please contact the Hendry County Economic Development Council and the County Commission and politely request that they reject any proposal to establish this monkey breeding farm:

Tristan Chapman, Chairman
Hendry County Board of County Commissioners
E-mail: bocc3@hendryfla.net

Gregg Gillman, President
Hendry County Economic Development Council
E-mail: gregg@hendryedc.com

The island nations of Barbados and St. Kitts & Nevis are 350 miles apart but have one unfortunate similarity. For centuries, the calls of African green monkeys have been heard in the forests of both countries. Sadly, both countries allow the trapping and export of wild monkeys for use in laboratory experimentation.

Recently, ARFF was part of a successful effort to persuade an airline to cuts its ties with the cruel primate trade following a flight from Barbados.

On April 19, the BUAV revealed that in August 2011, a Choice Airways plane transported 22 wild-caught monkeys from Barbados to Miami for Alpha Genesis, a company that sells monkeys to research laboratories. ARFF urged its supporters to contact Choice Airways and ask the company to refuse to transport monkeys destined for the research industry in the future. By the end of the day, Choice Airways had released a statement that confirmed the airline will no longer transport primates. The April 26 issue of Barbados Today featured a story about the airline’s decision.

Please contact Barbados’ Consul General in Miami and politely ask that Barbados ban the export of monkeys destined for the research industry. Let him know that the continued export of wild-caught monkeys could harm the international reputation of Barbados.

Consul General Colin S. Mayers
Phone: (786) 515-1201
E-mail: miami@foreign.gov.bb

Visit Stolen from Paradise.com, ARFF’s website arguing for a ban on the export from St. Kitts & Nevis of monkeys destined for the research industry.

The United States is the largest importer of monkeys from Barbados and St. Kitts & Nevis. Miami is the most common port of entry.

Tickets to the Miami Seaquarium cost $39.95, plus $8 for parking. Where’s the money going? Apparently, it’s not spent on maintenance.

On March 20, a USDA inspector visited the Miami Seaquarium and found a facility in need of major repairs. According to the Inspection Report (download here), “A viewing window in the whale stadium which is part of the primary enclosure and the third window from the east, was noted to be dripping water in a constant stream. The window seal and structural integrity of this area … should be evaluated and appropriate repairs made.”

The inspector also noted, “The metal roof over the public stands in the whale stadium has rusted and corroded areas in the middle third of the roof. Part of the overhang was noted to have flaking rust. Several holes were noted in the metal roof panels as a result of deterioration. Directly in front of the access panel a large area of corrosion was seen adjacent to a support beam. Pieces of the compromised roof could fall into the primary enclosure especially during high winds and adversely affect the welfare of the animals.”

Lolita the orca has lived in the same barren tank at the Seaquarium for over 40 years. She lives a solitary life, performing in depressing daily shows for tourists. Her tank is believed to be the smallest enclosure for an orca in the country.

If you’d like to help Lolita, there are monthly demonstrations outside the Seaquarium in Miami. The next protest will be Saturday, May 5, beginning at 12 noon (Facebook event page).

Cora is an Asian elephant owned by Bill Morris of Gibsonton, Florida. Each year, Mr. Morris travels with Circus Hollywood, which performs as the “Shrine Circus” for several Shrine temples in Florida.

ARFF has added a short video to our YouTube page that shows Morris cruelly using a bullhook on Cora when she doesn’t cooperate as he tries to put anklets around her legs before a show.

According to Bill Morris, Cora is 51 years old, which would make her one of the oldest performing elephants in the United States. But ARFF believes Cora is actually much older, perhaps over 60. She may be the oldest elephant still traveling and performing with a circus in the country.

Cora was born in the wild in Asia and sold into the circus, so it may be impossible to determine exactly how old she is, but in past newspaper interviews Bill Morris has described growing up with the elephant. On his website, there’s a photo (here) of Bill as a young boy standing next to Cora when she was a baby. Morris is 65 years old, so the photo was taken in the early 1950s, which would make Cora at least 60 years old.

Cora has spent more than five decades in traveling circuses. She deserves a peaceful retirement. Please contact Bill Morris and ask him, as a humane gesture, to take Cora off the road and allow her to spend her remaining years free from the stresses of traveling and performing. Encourage him to consider retiring Cora to a sanctuary. Send a copy of your email to the owner of Circus Hollywood.

Bill Morris
E-mail: elephantencounter@yahoo.com

Serge Coronas, Owner
Circus Hollywood
E-mail: sergecoronas@aol.com

Please share with ARFF any responses that you receive.

Read below posts (here and here) about House Bill 1197.

ARFF is very disappointed that Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed this harmful bill into law. ARFF will work to reinstate the protections afforded animals in the 1967 law that was repealed. Since Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff’s office has admitted that they were unaware of the full consequences of her amendment, hopefully she will support efforts to have the law reinstated.

ARFF’s concerns about a bill to repeal Florida’s long-standing ban on the sale of baby animals as pets, as well as the ban on artificial coloring of animals, made the front page of today’s New York Times. (Read below posts for more information about this bill.)

Governor Scott has not yet made a decision on the bill. Please contact the Governor today and ask him to veto House Bill 1197!

Florida Governor Rick Scott
Phone: (850) 488-7146
Online comment form.

Last May, Janice and Ashley Ramirez (mother and daughter) were arrested and charged with cruelty to animals and fighting/baiting animals after a video appeared online of the women encouraging two dogs to attack a wild pig whose mouth had been taped shut. The violent, gruesome five minute video was filmed in an enclosed backyard in Vero Beach. This week, the two women were sentenced to 60 days in jail after they pled “no contest” to the two felony charges.

The women’s attorney explained that the women were training their dogs for pig hunting, and that their only mistake was to set the dogs on the pig inside an enclosure. Sadly, he’s probably right. It is common, and legal, for hunters in Florida to use dogs to find, chase and attack pigs in the wild. Pigs can suffer horrible injuries from the dog pack.

In Sunday’s Miami Herald, we learned that for some hunters the use of dogs, or their own two feet, is too much of a hassle.  The article described a recent hunt in Okeechobee in which men inside helicopters shot at wild pigs with shotguns. At the end of the day, the hunters admitted that “no one was certain” how many animals they had killed or how many were wounded. One of the hunters described the experience as “a bloody testosterone fest.”

So goes hunting in Florida.

Visit ARFF’s website to learn more about Florida’s wild pigs.

Worldwide protests against the transport of animals for the research industry have received a lot of attention recently; for example, in this article last week in the journal Nature.

Air France-KLM is the world’s largest transporter of primates and other animals destined for laboratory experimentation. This week ARFF learned that Air France has received an “Official Warning” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating the Animal Welfare Act. According to the USDA, in early 2008 an Air France plane arrived at Miami International Airport with 3 dead genets in the cargo hold (genets are small mammals related to civets and mongooses). An Air France employee confirmed that the animals had not been fed or watered during the two-day trip from Europe to Florida. The genets were likely destined for the pet trade. The incident is a sad reminder of the suffering of animals trapped in the international wildlife trade.

ARFF is participating in the international campaign to stop airlines transporting primates destined for research. You can help by contacting Air France-KLM and urging them to end their involvement in the transport of primates to laboratories. Contact:

Jan Krems, Vice President, The Americas
Air France-KLM Cargo
E-mail: jan.krems@klmcargo.com

Alain Pagès, Vice President, USA
Air France-KLM Cargo
E-mail: alpages@airfrance.fr

Send a copy of your email to Air France-KLM Cargo’s Miami-based staff:
patricia.paulhiac@klmcargo.com, davinson.prieto@martinairamericas.com, arthur.brown@martinairamericas.com

Read more about the transport of primates for research on ARFF’s website.

After a year of work, activists in Lake County may finally have an anti-tethering ordinance that they can be proud of! On Tuesday, Lake County Commissioners discussed the cruel tethering of dogs and evaluated the different options to address the problem. Commissioners directed staff to draft an ordinance that would allow tethering only when a dog is in the physical presence of a guardian or responsible adult. The first hearing of the proposed ordinance may be at the April 10 commission meeting.

Are you a resident of Lake County, or do you have family/friends in the county? Contact ARFF to get involved in efforts to pass an anti-chaining ordinance.

Next Tuesday, at a Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners workshop, a proposal to encourage owners of dogs and cats to spay or neuter their animals will be debated.

If you are a resident of Pinellas County, please attend the workshop! The workshop begins at 9:30am on Tuesday, March 20 at the county government center in Clearwater. Click here for more details.

Good news! On February 28, the City of New Smyrna Beach adopted an ordinance that will require all healthy cats and dogs to be sterilized, although individuals would be able to obtain a license to breed animals. There would also be exceptions for registered show dogs and cats. New Smyrna Beach is the eighth city in Volusia County to enact such an ordinance (Volusia County itself also has a similar ordinance)!

The final week of Florida’s legislative session is a frantic time, so we forgive legislators for not completely understanding each bill that comes before them for a vote. But we do expect the sponsors of bills and amendments to understand the changes they are asking for.

So we were surprised when an aide in State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff’s office admitted that the Senator did not realize that her amendment (see below post) to repeal an existing law prohibiting the dyeing or coloring of animals would also repeal the ban on the sale of baby rabbits, ducks and chickens as pets. The aide told the Sun-Sentinel, “Oops. That’s an unintended consequence. We had no clue.”

Contact Sen. Bogdanoff and urge her, in light of the unintended consequences of her amendment, to withdraw her support of the bill. Ask her to ask Governor Scott not to sign HB 1197.

Senator Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff
E-mail: bogdanoff.ellyn.web@flsenate.gov