{"id":57659,"date":"2025-08-30T22:09:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57659"},"modified":"2025-08-30T22:09:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T02:09:53","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-in-the-next-26-days-floridas-polk-county-animal-control-will-kill-425-pets-then-profit-from-their-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/30\/letter-to-the-editor-in-the-next-26-days-floridas-polk-county-animal-control-will-kill-425-pets-then-profit-from-their-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: In the next 26 days, Florida’s Polk County Animal Control will kill 425 pets \u2014 then profit from their deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Vicky Quintanilla\u00a0

Polk is not poor yet it chooses to kill and make money.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"\u2753\"Questions Polk County Animal Control Can\u2019t Keep Dodging \"\ud83d\udea8\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. 1. Phones banned
    <\/strong>Why can you carry a phone into City Hall\u2014or even the White House\u2014but not into Polk County Animal Control, where one photo could mean the difference between a pet\u2019s freedom or its last breath?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  2. \"\ud83d\udea7\"\u00a02. Fence pushed back
    <\/strong>Why was the perimeter fence moved further out, cutting the public off from even open-air areas? What exactly are they trying so hard to hide?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  3. \"\ud83d\udc3e\"\u00a03. Rescues blocked
    <\/strong>Why are rescues\u2014the very groups saving lives every single day\u2014barred from the adoptable animal area?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  4. \"\ud83d\udcbb\"\u00a04. Drive-thru adoptions
    <\/strong>Why are families told to scroll a website, then handed pets like drive-thru orders, robbed of the chance to meet, connect, and choose with their hearts?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  5. \"\u26a0\ufe0f\"\u00a05. Scare-tactic signs
    <\/strong>Why does the Sheriff\u2019s spokesperson point to a 1949 law to justify a giant \u201cDangerous Dog\u201d sign\u2014when Rep. Judson Sapp himself says Polk is misusing his 2025 law that applies only to specific dogs after due process?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  6. \"\u26d3\ufe0f\"\u00a06. Prisoners in, volunteers out
    <\/strong>Why are untrained prisoners allowed to care for pets \u2014despite reports of animal torture \u2014while approved fingerprinted background-checked volunteers have begged since February for a call back to help?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  7. \"\ud83e\udd10\"\u00a07. Voices silenced
    Why are advocates shut down at Commission meetings\u2014denied even the right to clap\u2014when the First Amendment guarantees our right to petition for change?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  8. \"\ud83d\udc31\"\u00a08. ABA ignored
    <\/strong>Why has Polk County ignored the American Bar Association\u2019s 2017 resolution urging TNVR and community cat protections\u2014while commissioners refuse to change ordinances that do the opposite?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  9. \"\ud83d\udcf0\"\u00a09. Eleven articles
    <\/strong>Why is it considered \u201cnormal\u201d that 11 separate news investigations in just 4 months have exposed PCAC\u2019s failures? How many headlines before leaders finally act?<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  10. \"\ud83d\udc94\"\u00a010. The ultimate question
    <\/strong>Why don\u2019t those in power step in? How many more animals must take their last unseen breath before officials choose courage over complicity\u2014silencing us instead of listening and acting?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Vicky Quintanilla\u00a0 Polk is not poor yet it chooses to kill and make money. Questions Polk County Animal Control Can\u2019t Keep Dodging <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57661,"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":"11","_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,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcLzUzODYzNTE5Ml8xMDE2MjI2MjY0MzQ3OTEzMl8xNDQ1MTA5NDM2NTM0MDc5MDg5X24ud2VicD9maXQ9ODEwJTJDNTQwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGV0dGVyIHRvIHRoZSBFZGl0b3I6IEluIHRoZSBuZXh0IDI2IGRheXMsIEZsb3JpZGEmIzgyMTc7cyBQb2xrIENvdW50eSBBbmltYWwgQ29udHJvbCB3aWxsIGtpbGwgNDI1IHBldHMgXHUyMDE0IHRoZW4gcHJvZml0IGZyb20gdGhlaXIgZGVhdGhzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.8VsmuOCjOmlXhCIqPbPynJu6BANaNgCu5-iGN1_HcdcMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57661,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/538635192_10162262643479132_1445109436534079089_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[12107,12106],"class_list":["post-57659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-floridas-polk-county-animal-control-will-kill-425-pets-then-profit-from-their-deaths","tag-letter-to-the-editor-in-the-next-26-days"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57659","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=57659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57662,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57659\/revisions\/57662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}