![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/506062306_10161923282089132_1574696467713116044_n.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nAnimal activists in Polk County are gearing up to use their voices to advocate for change at Polk County Animal Control. And it\u2019s not the first time they\u2019ve done so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to records from the University of Florida\u2019s Department of Veterinary Medicine, the Polk County shelter\u2019s \u201cLive Outcome Rate\u201d was 58% in 2024, which means 42% of animals did not leave the county shelter alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, that wasn\u2019t the 2024 statistic that raised the biggest red flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2024, 401 dogs and cats combined died in the shelter for reasons not related to euthanasia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, 564 animals escaped from the shelter. The vast majority of those escapees were cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you look around the state, those numbers are higher than in many other counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meeting last month, speakers asked for a handful of policies that they believe would help improve animal welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specifically, they called for a more robust spay\/neuter program, a program to manage Polk County\u2019s feral cats, and a committee to provide oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioners, however, did not budge, so animal advocates plan to show up to the county commission\u2019s latest meeting, which is set for Tuesday, July 15 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure how they\u2019re going to take it or what we\u2019re going to be able to accomplish, but we\u2019re going to continue asking for the basic animal welfare ordinances to be enacted,\u201d said Jessica Ragazzo, an animal advocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advocates will have to be patient during the Tuesday meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though they spoke toward the beginning of the meeting last time, since then, the commission has changed its policy. Now, the general public comment \u2014 related to topics that are not on the agenda \u2014 will happen toward the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office has rejected the criticism and defended its record at Polk County Animal Control. In a previous statement, it told ABC Action News that animals are loved and well cared for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Activists plan to attend the commission meeting on Tuesday, July 15, at 9 a.m. Animal activists in Polk County are gearing up to use their voices to advocate for change… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcLzUwNjA2MjMwNl8xMDE2MTkyMzI4MjA4OTEzMl8xNTc0Njk2NDY3NzEzMTE2MDQ0X24ud2VicD9maXQ9NDAwJTJDNjAwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiQWN0aXZpc3RzIHdpbGwgeWV0IGFnYWluIGFzayBjb21taXNzaW9uZXJzIGZvciBjaGFuZ2UgYXQgUG9sayBDb3VudHkgQW5pbWFsIENvbnRyb2wiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.L5H5ESGzUD0CP2VZKIVR8tjh-trBXzKBcC8FVrQ3mVUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56796,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/506062306_10161923282089132_1574696467713116044_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[11826],"class_list":["post-56795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-activists-will-yet-again-ask-commissioners-for-change-at-polk-county-animal-control"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56797,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56795\/revisions\/56797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}