Pasco takes step toward banning retail sale of rabbits
The Pasco County Commission has directed county team to arrive back again to the board with a advice about banning the retail sale of rabbits.
Pasco County outlawed the sale of kittens, puppies, cats and dogs from pet merchants previous calendar year, and now animal advocates want a related ban on the sale of pet rabbits.
Commissioner Jack Mariano stated the board need to think about a ban, and he and his colleagues voted to have county employees provide a thing back again to the board on the concern.
The motion adopted e-mails been given by commissioners and requests for the duration of the public remark portion of a meeting in September and also in December.
Throughout the Dec. 7 conference, Dr. Betsy Coville, a veterinarian from Lutz, informed commissioners that rabbits are the third most-surrendered pet.
“They call for bigger maintenance than canine or cats and can are living 10 to 12 years.
“Frequently dumped outside, when the rescues are entire, they starve, turn out to be prey for coyotes, or are strike by a auto.
Bunny mills are persistently the supply for these bunnies that come to be undesired.
They’re “no different from the puppy mills that we acknowledge as inhumane,” she said.
“There are presently a few destinations in Florida that have positioned bans on retail income of rabbits: Orange County, Desoto County and Critical West.
“They have all put rabbits, together with puppies and cats, in their retail sale ban.
“Petco and PetSmart stopped marketing rabbits in 2007, and only work with rescues. They are the No. 1 and (No.) 2 retail pet materials in the U.S., so obviously, a ban will not harm these enterprises fiscally. This ban will acquire the strain off rescues and humane societies — eradicating the guilt of turning them absent and negating the will need for proprietors to dump them.
“Pasco County has been a leader in the point out in preserving animals, with anti-tethering guidelines and pet profits bans.
“Now, as we are operating to educate and alter legal guidelines in neighboring counties, we hope you will be the trailblazer for the Tampa Bay region,” the veterinarian stated.
Animal advocate Renee Rivard, who had appeared at both of those the Sept. 28 and Dec. 7 assembly, reiterated her fears.
At the Dec. 7 conference, she explained to commissioners: “The Tampa Humane Culture has taken in 246 unwanted pet rabbits so significantly this calendar year. That’s 100 more than previous year.
“Hillsborough County commissioners are having action, since the Tampa Humane Society is their lover in supporting the county with unwanted pets,” she reported.
She asked the Pasco board to do the exact: “There is no facility in Pasco County that takes in unwelcome rabbits. Suncoast Dwelling Rabbit Rescue is your lover with unwelcome pet rabbits here in Pasco County. Suncoast Property Rabbit Rescue has explained to you that they are confused. In September by yourself, they had to switch away 66 unwelcome pet rabbits.
“It is exceptionally complicated to discover fosters and homes for rabbits. Rabbits are a large-servicing pet,” Rivard stated. “They need to have specialized veterinarian care, which is expensive,” she added.
She also described that the bulk of rabbit profits are impulse buys at retail suppliers. That specifically takes place around Easter, when small children convey to their dad and mom they want a bunny rabbit.
Rivard told commissioners: “You have approximately 45 pet suppliers in Pasco County 36 of them survive, with no promoting rabbits.”
The argument that Petco and PetSmart haven’t sold rabbits in a long time seemed to resonate with Mariano.
He described that and pointed out that in addition to listening to from speakers, he’s received e-mail on the situation.
He built a motion to have county team appear into the problem and to report again to the board, which received unanimous assist from his colleagues.
Posted December 22, 2021
