{"id":65190,"date":"2026-04-24T20:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65190"},"modified":"2026-04-24T20:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:39:35","slug":"care-coalition-for-animal-rights-and-education-was-created-to-be-a-unified-voice-for-animal-welfare-in-polk-county-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/care-coalition-for-animal-rights-and-education-was-created-to-be-a-unified-voice-for-animal-welfare-in-polk-county-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"CARE | Coalition for Animal Rights and Education was created to be a unified voice for animal welfare in Polk County, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;In a county where concerns about neglect, abandonment, weak preventive ordinances, and the loss of thousands of healthy animal lives each year inside the county shelter facility have persisted for far too long, CARE was formed to bring advocates, organizations, and community members together around one clear purpose: promoting animal welfare through education, collaboration, accountability, and the implementation of best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"d9d0d4\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EmailTempImageHEV_1776036897262.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65191 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #d9d0d4; width:355px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EmailTempImageHEV_1776036897262.webp 180w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EmailTempImageHEV_1776036897262-150x150.webp 150w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These animals did not choose their fate. Someone else chose it for them \u2014 often funneled by default into a facility that continues to report among the highest non-live outcomes in the region. And while some animals enter the system due to neglect or abandonment, many arrive simply because families lacked access to affordable spay and neuter services, education, and the resources needed to keep them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overpopulation is not a people problem \u2014 it is a community failure, and it demands a community solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;CARE believes that meaningful change requires more than concern alone. It requires a community willing to work together to strengthen protections for animals, improve public awareness, expand access to resources, and advance humane, responsible policies that reflect the values of compassion and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We believe in speaking up for the voiceless \u2014 because as long as people are the ones deciding their fate, people must also be the ones held accountable for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Join us at&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc47\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/17.0\/1f447\/32.png\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/186iGuWGrD\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/186iGuWGrD\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@carepolkcountyflorida\" data-unique-id=\"carepolkcountyflorida\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" data-embed-type=\"creator\" style=\"max-width:780px; min-width:288px;\"> <section> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@carepolkcountyflorida?refer=creator_embed\">@carepolkcountyflorida<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;In a county where concerns about neglect, abandonment, weak preventive ordinances, and the loss of thousands of healthy animal lives each year inside the county shelter facility have persisted for&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"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":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL0VtYWlsVGVtcEltYWdlSEVWXzE3NzYwMzY4OTcyNjIud2VicD9maXQ9MTgwJTJDMTgwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiQ0FSRSB8IENvYWxpdGlvbiBmb3IgQW5pbWFsIFJpZ2h0cyBhbmQgRWR1Y2F0aW9uIHdhcyBjcmVhdGVkIHRvIGJlIGEgdW5pZmllZCB2b2ljZSBmb3IgYW5pbWFsIHdlbGZhcmUgaW4gUG9sayBDb3VudHksIEZsb3JpZGEiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.TGFNQc2S0y74KhefMeD8yANHbDB28UC_xALs9R6QHiEMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9FbWFpbFRlbXBJbWFnZUhFVl8xNzc2MDM2ODk3MjYyLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJDQVJFIHwgQ29hbGl0aW9uIGZvciBBbmltYWwgUmlnaHRzIGFuZCBFZHVjYXRpb24gd2FzIGNyZWF0ZWQgdG8gYmUgYSB1bmlmaWVkIHZvaWNlIGZvciBhbmltYWwgd2VsZmFyZSBpbiBQb2xrIENvdW50eSwgRmxvcmlkYSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.yoTP0C_vwBrgjE6ayouemLbfwau98ZwOr3ngv1l3F4UMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14472,2332],"class_list":["post-65190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-care-coalition-for-animal-rights-and-education-was-created-to-be-a-unified-voice-for-animal-welfare-in-polk-county","tag-florida"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65190","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=65190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65192,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65190\/revisions\/65192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}