![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/080321-jm-randy-mink-county-attorney-headshot-01-web.webp?resize=160%2C207&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nOn August 20, 2025, we submitted a detailed legal inquiry to County Attorney Randy Mink regarding Animal Control’s legal authority to issue directives concerning outdoor cats. Members of the Animal Defenders of Polk County group followed up professionally on September 4, 2025. Over 30 days have passed, and we have received no response or acknowledgment of our inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why This Requires Immediate Legal Attention: Residents are currently receiving conflicting directives from Animal Control officers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Legal authority questions remain unresolved, creating potential county liability<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Community members need clear guidance on lawful compliance with county ordinances<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The issues involve fundamental questions about existing county code interpretation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Animal Control is issuing “green slips” requiring outdoor shelter for cats, but Polk County Code Section 4-27 appears to address dogs only. What is the legal basis for cat shelter requirements?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Polk County or municipal ordinance explicitly empowers Animal Control officers to direct residents to cease feeding outdoor cats? If no such ordinance exists, what legal authority supports these directives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For municipalities establishing ownership through feeding (Polk City, Winter Haven, Mulberry, after 3-7 days), what authority does Animal Control have to direct owners to stop feeding their legally owned cats? This would appear to violate Florida Statute 828.12 (animal cruelty).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For municipalities without feeding-based ownership provisions (Lakeland, Haines City, Auburndale, Bartow, Lake Wales, Lake Hamilton), can Animal Control legally declare cat feeders as owners, impose vaccination requirements on feeders for unowned animals (Section 4-24), or hold feeders liable under nuisance ordinances (Section 4-31) for animals they do not legally own or control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current enforcement relies on single-complainant reports without corroborating evidence, even for owned pets. Should enhanced evidentiary standards be implemented to prevent hearsay-based enforcement and reduce retaliatory complaints?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These unresolved legal questions are causing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Inconsistent enforcement across municipalities<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Resident Confusion about legal obligations<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Potential constitutional due process concerns<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Risk of county liability from improper enforcement actions<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given the ongoing enforcement actions and residents being threatened with citations under questionable authority, we respectfully requested a response by October 1, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AS OF 10\/04\/25, WE HAVE RECEIVED NO RESPONSE FROM OUR TAXPAYER PAID COUNTY ATTORNEY RANDY MINK, SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, DIRECTOR GORDY SCHERER, THE COUNTY MANAGER, OR ANYONE OF OUR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n IS ANYONE OK WITH THIS? DO THESE PEOPLE NOT REPORT TO US (THE TAXPAYERS)? WRITE YOUR COMMISSIONERS AND ATTORNEY MINK AND DEMAND ANSWERS.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Street Cat Project of Polk County On August 20, 2025, we submitted a detailed legal inquiry to County Attorney Randy Mink regarding Animal Control’s legal authority to issue directives… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58429,"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":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTBcLzA4MDMyMS1qbS1yYW5keS1taW5rLWNvdW50eS1hdHRvcm5leS1oZWFkc2hvdC0wMS13ZWIud2VicD9maXQ9MTYwJTJDMjA3JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGV0dGVyICYjODIxMTsgU3RpbGwgTk8gQW5zd2VyIGZyb20gQ291bnR5IEF0dG9ybmV5IFJhbmR5IE1pbmsgcmVnYXJkaW5nIEFuaW1hbCBDb250cm9sJiM4MjE3O3MgbGVnYWwgYXV0aG9yaXR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.pK6KsiCDyXOK1iqfMLDcuYqtjTU5Nq-_X_RxKiOVf68MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":58429,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/080321-jm-randy-mink-county-attorney-headshot-01-web.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[12373],"class_list":["post-58428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-letter-still-no-answer-from-county-attorney-randy-mink-regarding-animal-controls-legal-authority"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58428","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=58428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58430,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58428\/revisions\/58430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}