Miami-Dade pet lovers push to consider tax to protect unwanted animals
Bucking anti-tax sentiment, animal advocates are petitioning on behalf of a levy to help treat unwanted pets more humanely.
The Petition
To see the Pets’ Trust petition, go to: http://www.change.org/petitions/our-elected-officials-give-us-the-right-to-vote-on-a-pets-trust
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com
In Ward A at Miami-Dade’s animal shelter, Michael Rosenberg watched 15 dogs die.
They weren’t vicious. They weren’t sick. But nobody wanted them, and the shelter had run out of space. So somber technicians had to kill them by lethal injection.
By day’s end, several dozen more animals were “put down’’ in the euthanasia room. Same thing the next day, the day after, and so on: about 20,000 every year.
Rosenberg left the Medley shelter that November day both heartsick, and determined to make it stop.
His idea: a Pets’ Trust, which would create a steady, predictable and sufficient source of revenue for the county’s Animal Services Department.
Enough money to run and staff a clean new shelter in Doral, due to open in mid-2013.
Enough to attack pet overpopulation with more low-cost spay/neuter services.
Enough to reach pet owners with the seemingly common-sense messages that thousands ignore: Vaccinate and ID-tag your animals. Don’t let them run the streets. Get them “fixed.’’
The typical Miami-Dade property owner would be assessed about the same amount that voters approved twice, overwhelmingly, for the Children’s Trust: $13 a year.
Chronically underfunded, understaffed and overcrowded, Animal Services operates out of a grungy, 43-year-old building where airborne infections like distemper spread unchecked among animals awaiting adoption, forcing repeated shut-downs.
A distemper outbreak this month claimed 51 lives by Friday.
Feral cats and stray dogs end up there because they’re considered a public nuisance. Some animals have gotten lost, and picked up by Animal Services officers. Owners who can’t afford them anymore, or are moving to places that prohibit pets, drop them off.
Sometimes they’re left because their fur doesn’t match the new decor, or because they shed, or bark, or dig.
The shelter has space to humanely keep 300 cats and dogs per day, but since it must accept every animal that citizens or investigators bring, the population often rises to a crammed 400.
Some years, 37,000 enter, and two-thirds never leave.
The kill rate hasn’t changed much in three decades, no matter who’s been running Miami-Dade Animal Services: the Public Safety, Public Works or police departments, an experienced veterinarian, and now, a seasoned county administrator.
Dr. Sara Pizano is the veterinarian.
“In a community of 2.4 million people, with a 15 percent poverty rate, there are an estimated 500,000 dogs, 500,000 feral and 500,000 pet cats...but less than 10,000 low-cost spay/neuter opportunities,’’ she said. “Many thousands of pet owners want their pets sterilized,’’ but can’t afford it.
Rosenberg, a Kendall businessman, is modeling his proposal on the Children’s Trust, which underwrites services to children through property tax bills.
He believes that given a chance to vote, the citizens of Miami-Dade County also will support a Pets’ Trust. He’s circulating a petition that reads: “The people of Miami-Dade County should be able to decide a course of action to improve the quality of life in our home, by having the right to vote on a Pets Trust.’’
Seeking a spot on the ballot isn’t the same as approving the Pets’ Trust concept or levying a tax, the petition notes.
“You are signing that you would like the community to be able to vote on this...We are asking this on behalf of our animals who can only ‘speak’ through our actions.’’
Getting on the ballot is complicated and politically fraught, so it could be years before that happens. And every year, Rosenberg warns, another 20,000-plus cats and dogs will die.
By tolerating that, he said, “we’re all killers.’’
A generally fractious pet-rescue community more accustomed to snarling at each other over philosophical issues than collaborating, is solidly behind Rosenberg.
About 40 rescuers, shelter operators and animal advocates attended a meeting that Rosenberg, 59, called in December to pitch his idea. Dozens signed up to actively volunteer.
“What we all realize is that this man has come up with a really practical plan,’’ said Jeanette Jordan, president of the South Florida SPCA, which rescues horses. She attended the meeting, and is working with Rosenberg to find supporters in the Florida Legislature.
What his let-the-voters-decide bill needs is a sponsor in each chamber willing to add the question to an existing, relevant bill.
In the Senate, Mike Fasano, a dog-loving New Port Richie Republican, is considering amending SB 288, his Domestic Violence Against Family Pets — itself still seeking a House sponsor — to include Rosenberg’s proposal.
While senators can sponsor an unlimited number of bills, representatives only get six, and most are booked up. But even if that wasn’t so, it would be a hard sell.
Jordan told Rosenberg in an email: “The problem is that the Legislature is extremely pro ‘small government’ and against anything that even smells like there could be a tax involved, despite the fact that...the Pets’ Trust amendment would not allocate any taxes, just give the voters of Miami-Dade the opportunity to vote on the tax.’’
Fasano’s chief legislative assistant, Greg Giordano, agreed: “Anytime you bring a subject such as taxation into an issue, it could make some controversy.’’
Rosenberg is a proven consumers’ rights crusader who recently won a nearly five-year battle with the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department over paying for inexplicably large water bills.
“One of the greatest things you can do is help people fix things,’’ he said. “And I have a lot of energy.’’
His effort coincides with leadership changes at both Animal Services and the Greater Miami Humane Society Adopt-A-Pet, the county’s two largest sheltering operations.
Alex Muñoz became Animal Services director in August, when Pizano resigned, under attack by activists who blamed her for the kill rate, despite a steady increase in adoptions and rescues during her five-year tenure.
Donna Tallon, who has a background in retail, replaced Emily Marquez-Dulin in September as executive director at the Humane Society: a limited-admit, adoption-guarantee, non-profit shelter that accepts only animals likely to find homes, and last year placed about 1,200.
Those that don’t get adopted can live out their lives at the Soffer and Fine adoption center in North Miami Beach.
Rosenberg, whose family has a cat, got involved with Animal Services after meeting Muñoz at a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations event. Muñoz told him about the kill rate. Rosenberg wondered: “How do they do it? How do they go home at night?’’
Muñoz allowed him to see for himself. Now he wonders if he’ll ever get the images out of his mind.
Rosenberg has since invited county commissioners, who control Animal Services’ $9 million budget, to join him for a day in the euthanasia room. So far, none has accepted. (Taxes now provide 11 percent of the department’s budget. Licenses, fines and fees for medical services, provide the rest).
In 1989, The Miami Herald chronicled Animal Services’ challenges, including the killing of dozens of animals a day. Rosenberg recently emailed the reporter who wrote that story:
“You went over 20 years ago...and nothing has changed. The drain for the urine is still there in the center of the room, two people still do the job, the dogs still look around and get excited that someone has come to play with them, and then, dead. It is sickening to think that in the past 20 years over 400,000 animals have been killed in that room.’’
They weren’t vicious. They weren’t sick. But nobody wanted them, and the shelter had run out of space. So somber technicians had to kill them by lethal injection.
By day’s end, several dozen more animals were “put down’’ in the euthanasia room. Same thing the next day, the day after, and so on: about 20,000 every year.
Rosenberg left the Medley shelter that November day both heartsick, and determined to make it stop.
His idea: a Pets’ Trust, which would create a steady, predictable and sufficient source of revenue for the county’s Animal Services Department.
Enough money to run and staff a clean new shelter in Doral, due to open in mid-2013.
Enough to attack pet overpopulation with more low-cost spay/neuter services.
Enough to reach pet owners with the seemingly common-sense messages that thousands ignore: Vaccinate and ID-tag your animals. Don’t let them run the streets. Get them “fixed.’’
The typical Miami-Dade property owner would be assessed about the same amount that voters approved twice, overwhelmingly, for the Children’s Trust: $13 a year.
Chronically underfunded, understaffed and overcrowded, Animal Services operates out of a grungy, 43-year-old building where airborne infections like distemper spread unchecked among animals awaiting adoption, forcing repeated shut-downs.
A distemper outbreak this month claimed 51 lives by Friday.
Feral cats and stray dogs end up there because they’re considered a public nuisance. Some animals have gotten lost, and picked up by Animal Services officers. Owners who can’t afford them anymore, or are moving to places that prohibit pets, drop them off.
Sometimes they’re left because their fur doesn’t match the new decor, or because they shed, or bark, or dig.
The shelter has space to humanely keep 300 cats and dogs per day, but since it must accept every animal that citizens or investigators bring, the population often rises to a crammed 400.
Some years, 37,000 enter, and two-thirds never leave.
The kill rate hasn’t changed much in three decades, no matter who’s been running Miami-Dade Animal Services: the Public Safety, Public Works or police departments, an experienced veterinarian, and now, a seasoned county administrator.
Dr. Sara Pizano is the veterinarian.
“In a community of 2.4 million people, with a 15 percent poverty rate, there are an estimated 500,000 dogs, 500,000 feral and 500,000 pet cats...but less than 10,000 low-cost spay/neuter opportunities,’’ she said. “Many thousands of pet owners want their pets sterilized,’’ but can’t afford it.
Rosenberg, a Kendall businessman, is modeling his proposal on the Children’s Trust, which underwrites services to children through property tax bills.
He believes that given a chance to vote, the citizens of Miami-Dade County also will support a Pets’ Trust. He’s circulating a petition that reads: “The people of Miami-Dade County should be able to decide a course of action to improve the quality of life in our home, by having the right to vote on a Pets Trust.’’
Seeking a spot on the ballot isn’t the same as approving the Pets’ Trust concept or levying a tax, the petition notes.
“You are signing that you would like the community to be able to vote on this...We are asking this on behalf of our animals who can only ‘speak’ through our actions.’’
Getting on the ballot is complicated and politically fraught, so it could be years before that happens. And every year, Rosenberg warns, another 20,000-plus cats and dogs will die.
By tolerating that, he said, “we’re all killers.’’
A generally fractious pet-rescue community more accustomed to snarling at each other over philosophical issues than collaborating, is solidly behind Rosenberg.
About 40 rescuers, shelter operators and animal advocates attended a meeting that Rosenberg, 59, called in December to pitch his idea. Dozens signed up to actively volunteer.
“What we all realize is that this man has come up with a really practical plan,’’ said Jeanette Jordan, president of the South Florida SPCA, which rescues horses. She attended the meeting, and is working with Rosenberg to find supporters in the Florida Legislature.
What his let-the-voters-decide bill needs is a sponsor in each chamber willing to add the question to an existing, relevant bill.
In the Senate, Mike Fasano, a dog-loving New Port Richie Republican, is considering amending SB 288, his Domestic Violence Against Family Pets — itself still seeking a House sponsor — to include Rosenberg’s proposal.
While senators can sponsor an unlimited number of bills, representatives only get six, and most are booked up. But even if that wasn’t so, it would be a hard sell.
Jordan told Rosenberg in an email: “The problem is that the Legislature is extremely pro ‘small government’ and against anything that even smells like there could be a tax involved, despite the fact that...the Pets’ Trust amendment would not allocate any taxes, just give the voters of Miami-Dade the opportunity to vote on the tax.’’
Fasano’s chief legislative assistant, Greg Giordano, agreed: “Anytime you bring a subject such as taxation into an issue, it could make some controversy.’’
Rosenberg is a proven consumers’ rights crusader who recently won a nearly five-year battle with the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department over paying for inexplicably large water bills.
“One of the greatest things you can do is help people fix things,’’ he said. “And I have a lot of energy.’’
His effort coincides with leadership changes at both Animal Services and the Greater Miami Humane Society Adopt-A-Pet, the county’s two largest sheltering operations.
Alex Muñoz became Animal Services director in August, when Pizano resigned, under attack by activists who blamed her for the kill rate, despite a steady increase in adoptions and rescues during her five-year tenure.
Donna Tallon, who has a background in retail, replaced Emily Marquez-Dulin in September as executive director at the Humane Society: a limited-admit, adoption-guarantee, non-profit shelter that accepts only animals likely to find homes, and last year placed about 1,200.
Those that don’t get adopted can live out their lives at the Soffer and Fine adoption center in North Miami Beach.
Rosenberg, whose family has a cat, got involved with Animal Services after meeting Muñoz at a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations event. Muñoz told him about the kill rate. Rosenberg wondered: “How do they do it? How do they go home at night?’’
Muñoz allowed him to see for himself. Now he wonders if he’ll ever get the images out of his mind.
Rosenberg has since invited county commissioners, who control Animal Services’ $9 million budget, to join him for a day in the euthanasia room. So far, none has accepted. (Taxes now provide 11 percent of the department’s budget. Licenses, fines and fees for medical services, provide the rest).
In 1989, The Miami Herald chronicled Animal Services’ challenges, including the killing of dozens of animals a day. Rosenberg recently emailed the reporter who wrote that story:
“You went over 20 years ago...and nothing has changed. The drain for the urine is still there in the center of the room, two people still do the job, the dogs still look around and get excited that someone has come to play with them, and then, dead. It is sickening to think that in the past 20 years over 400,000 animals have been killed in that room.’’
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