{"id":60134,"date":"2025-12-18T21:09:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60134"},"modified":"2025-12-18T21:09:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:09:59","slug":"polk-county-animal-control-5-point-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/18\/polk-county-animal-control-5-point-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Animal Control: 5 Point Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County Animal Control, Florida \u2014 High Euthanasia Rates Demand Urgent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reform<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" alt=\"\ud83c\udd98\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/t28\/1\/16\/1f198.png\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/t51\/1\/16\/1f449.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc49\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/polk-county-animal-control-5-point-plan?recruiter=280462976&amp;recruited_by_id=c77d9a40-e6a4-11e4-bb1f-a7e101e2cb6e&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_campaign=psf_promote_or_share&amp;utm_term=psf&amp;utm_medium=facebook&amp;utm_content=fht-490930858-en-us%3A1\" class=\"ek-link\">Please Sign. Share. Take action.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lives depend on it. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc3e\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/tde\/1\/16\/1f43e.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc94\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/te7\/1\/16\/1f494.png\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.change.org\/photos\/1\/me\/xh\/KBMexhqiNOKKMDe-800x450-noPad.jpg?w=1110&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County Animal Control plays a critical role in our community, finding homes for adoptable animals and helping families reunite with their missing pets. However, statistics show that Animal Control reform is needed to improve the outcomes for Polk County Pets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Polk County shelter has the highest euthanasia rate in the state of Florida, according to the University of Florida\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine. The shelter\u2019s rate of euthanasia, animals dying in its care and animals marked as missing \u2014 a combination UF calls the \u201cnon-live\u201d rate \u2014 is also higher than other shelters across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please sign this petition to show your support for the following 5-point plan for change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Allow cell phones inside the animal control facility.<\/strong>\u00a0 Current policy requires visitors to lock up cell phones prior to entering the shelter, reducing visibility of available animals, limiting governmental transparency, and creating a less hospitable adoption environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Remove the shelter escort policy.<\/strong>\u00a0Potential adopters must wait for a shelter escort to accompany them throughout the shelter, reducing taxpayer access, hindering the efficiency of operations, and creating a less hospitable adoption environment.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Create a lost and found pet board.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0To increase potential for owners to reunite with their lost animals, the shelter should provide a designated area to post flyers for pets that have been lost or found by members of the community that is visible to all staff and visitors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Permit community volunteer programs.<\/strong>\u00a0Community volunteer programs can help support shelter operations at no expense to taxpayers. Volunteers are no longer able to assist as Polk County Animal Control Volunteer programs have been discontinued by the County, and volunteers offers of assistance are being turned away.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Establish an Animal Control Advisory Board<\/strong>.\u00a0 Neighboring counties have an Animal Control Advisory Board comprised of volunteers (community members, veterinarians, and attorneys) which meet regularly with the County Board of Commissioners to discuss Animal Control efforts in the county.\u00a0 This would create a regular, dedicated time for discussion of Animal Control policies and outcomes between the Polk County Board of Commissioners and an Animal Control Advisory Board to provide ongoing support and communication.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your signature is crucial in advocating for these free and necessary changes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/polk-county-animal-control-5-point-plan?recruiter=280462976&amp;recruited_by_id=c77d9a40-e6a4-11e4-bb1f-a7e101e2cb6e&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_campaign=psf_promote_or_share&amp;utm_term=psf&amp;utm_medium=facebook&amp;utm_content=fht-490930858-en-us%3A1\" class=\"ek-link\">Please sign this petition to show your support of the recommended 5-step plan.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polk County Animal Control, Florida \u2014 High Euthanasia Rates Demand Urgent Reform Please Sign. Share. Take action. Lives depend on it. Polk County Animal Control plays a critical role in&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60135,"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,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL0tCTWV4aHFpTk9LS01EZS04MDB4NDUwLW5vUGFkLndlYnA_Zml0PTgwMCUyQzQ1MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IEFuaW1hbCBDb250cm9sOiA1IFBvaW50IFBsYW4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.NvrH9dFXanHV6JsTRXxUNxj7thLE75sKpD3F7Q9yLdMMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60135,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KBMexhqiNOKKMDe-800x450-noPad.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12932],"class_list":["post-60134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-animal-control-5-point-plan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134","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=60134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60136,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134\/revisions\/60136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}