POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Sporting purple ribbons on their lapels, dozens of individuals referred to as out of labor or adjusted their plans to attend a Tuesday morning assembly of the Polk County Board of County Commissioners.
WATCH: ‘This can be a disaster’: Advocates push Polk County commissioners for change at embattled county animal shelter
‘This can be a disaster’: Advocates push Polk County commissioners for change at embattled county animal shelter
“This can be a disaster, and we as a county should do higher,” certainly one of them, Kay Bourke, instructed commissioners.
They attended the assembly to talk for Polk County’s canines and cats, roughly a month after an ABC Motion Information report put Polk County Animal Management within the highlight.
WATCH: Polk animal shelter timeline
Polk Animal Shelter TImeline
In accordance with data from the College of Florida’s Division of Veterinary Drugs, the Polk County shelter’s “Reside End result Charge” was 58% in 2024, which implies 42% of animals didn’t depart the county shelter alive.
Nonetheless, that wasn’t the 2024 statistic that raised the largest purple flag.
In 2024, 401 canines and cats mixed died within the shelter for causes not associated to euthanasia.
Moreover, 564 animals escaped from the shelter. The overwhelming majority of these escapees have been cats.
While you look across the state, these numbers are larger than in lots of different counties.
A latest former worker of Polk County Animal Management, who requested for his id be hid out of worry of retaliation, mentioned he’s nonetheless haunted by what he noticed, heard, and smelled whereas at Polk County Animal Management.
“I’m going to mattress. I pray. I pray for each single a kind of canines. I do know so many gained’t make it out alive,” he mentioned. “And that’s the exhausting half.”
One month later, dozens from throughout Polk County — from Lakeland to Bartow, Fort Meade to Haines Metropolis — attended the fee assembly to request extra oversight, extra accountability, and higher outcomes at Polk County Animal Management.
MORE: Angered by report about Polk County shelter, animal lovers begin e-mail marketing campaign
“This can be a failure of management that falls squarely in your shoulders,” mentioned Eve Salimbene, the President of the Avenue Cat Challenge of Polk County.
Commissioners, nonetheless, have been fast to disagree.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace and Sheriff Grady Judd run Animal Management, and although the county fee indicators off on the sheriff’s annual finances, and therein the finances for Animal Management, Commissioner Invoice Braswell ducked any duty or management of the division’s operations.
“ the sheriff’s in cost,” he instructed the room. “For no matter cause, you guys suppose, as a result of the finances comes by means of the [Board of County Commissioners], that we’ve got some oversight. Nothing might be farther from the reality.”
“We don’t seek the advice of with the sheriff about his finances. They’re unbiased. They’re elected. The sheriff runs Animal Management, and he’ll proceed to run Animal Management the best way he sees match,” Braswell continued.
Nonetheless, animal advocates challenged that assertion.
“Y’all have the facility to enact ordinances, don’t you?” one speaker, David Butler, requested the fee. “You’ll be able to enact an ordinance to vary the Animal Management shelter.”
Of the roughly two dozen who spoke, the animal advocates typically referred to as for:
- A extra sturdy spay/neuter program in Polk County
- An expanded voucher program that may permit extra to spay/neuter their pets
- A Entice-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) program to handle Polk County’s feral cat inhabitants
- An unbiased oversight committee to supply extra accountability at Polk County Animal Management
- A extra sturdy use of social media to extend adoptions on the county shelter
- Descriptions of animals’ behaviors and traits to enhance the adoption fee
- A extra fast-tracked means of vetting and accepting volunteers on the county shelter
- A measure to ban the tethering of canines in Polk County
“We’re not right here to assign blame,” mentioned Angie Lorio, the co-founder of the Polk County Bully Challenge. “We’re right here to ask for daring management and provide constructive options.”
After a lot of the crowd spoke, Fee Chair Rick Wilson supplied a dedication.
“We’ll speak about it, talk about it, and one-on-one with Grady or no matter. However we perceive. We’ve heard the identical factor time and again and over,” he mentioned. “We get it. We’re going to do what we will and go from there.”
However till change occurs, many within the room mentioned they are going to proceed to make use of their voices.
Neither Sheriff Judd nor his command employees have been in attendance as Polk County Animal Management was scrutinized.
Up to now, the sheriff’s workplace has rejected the criticism and defended its file at Animal Management.
“Animals at our facility are well-cared for by animal management members who love animals and work exhausting every single day to make a distinction,” Scott Wilder, the Director of Communications for the Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace, wrote in an e-mail. “That is really a labor of affection for our members. They work exhausting to take care of, save, and undertake pets.”
Wilder mentioned the Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace wouldn’t condone a TNVR program.
“[TNVR] colonies entice extra intact cats (that proceed to breed) due to the meals supplied to those colonies,” Wilder wrote. “Feral and at-large cats don’t reside so long as well-cared-for indoor cats. They endure predation by coyotes and different predators, they’re killed by site visitors, and so they die of illness and untreated accidents.”
Wilder mentioned the sheriff’s workplace can be serving to SPCA Florida increase cash for a spay/neuter program.
In a number of situations, ABC Motion Information requested an interview with the sheriff’s workplace and entry to shoot video contained in the shelter to independently confirm situations.
Nonetheless, the Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace has repeatedly declined that request and did so once more on Tuesday.
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