{"id":81021,"date":"2026-09-20T21:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=81021"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:54:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:54:27","slug":"why-polk-county-animal-control-must-stop-killing-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/20\/why-polk-county-animal-control-must-stop-killing-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Polk County Animal Control Must Stop Killing Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why are Polk County taxpayers paying for shelter policies that kill cats instead of funding humane prevention?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public records show Polk County Animal Control has taken in \ud835\udfd4\ud835\udfd0,\ud835\udfd2\ud835\udfd0\ud835\udfd7 \ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc2c since 2018\u2014and killed \ud835\udfd1\ud835\udfcf,\ud835\udfd2\ud835\udfd2\ud835\udfd7 \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc1f \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc21\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc26. That’s \ud835\udc21\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1f.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County alone has killed more cats in 8 years than the entire state of Florida has removed pythons in more than 25. That’s nearly \ud835\udfd2,\ud835\udfce\ud835\udfce\ud835\udfce \ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc2c \ud835\udc1a \ud835\udc32\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2b, compared to about 1,000 pythons a year \u2014 and the state calls pythons a crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheriff Judd compared outdoor community cats to snakes. So let’s compare the results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 years of killing cats \u2014 and they’re still coming, year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25+ years of removing pythons \u2014 and they’re still established, still breeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t kill your way out of reproduction. Judd is proving it \u2014 in his own county, \ud835\udc64\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc61\u210e \u210e\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc60 \ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc64\ud835\udc5b \ud835\udc5b\ud835\udc62\ud835\udc5a\ud835\udc4f\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc5f\ud835\udc60 \u2014 for the entire state of Florida and the Florida Sheriffs Association<\/a> to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop the cycle before it starts. Stop killing cats. Fund prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don’t like cats, you shouldn’t be in charge of them. Period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud835\udc12\ud835\udc29\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc32. \ud835\udc0d\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b. \ud835\udc13\ud835\udc0d\ud835\udc15\ud835\udc11 (\ud835\udc13\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc29-\ud835\udc0d\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b-\ud835\udc15\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc1e-\ud835\udc11\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc27)<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Why are Polk County taxpayers paying for shelter policies that kill cats instead of funding humane prevention? Public records show Polk County Animal Control has taken in \ud835\udfd4\ud835\udfd0,\ud835\udfd2\ud835\udfd0\ud835\udfd7 \ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc2c since… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81022,"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":"","_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":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcLzgxNTU3NjU5OV8xMjIxMjU4ODg3NzI4NTA3OTFfNDEzMzI3MDEwNzUxMzYxMjE2X24ud2VicD9maXQ9NTEyJTJDNjQwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiV2h5IFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IEFuaW1hbCBDb250cm9sIE11c3QgU3RvcCBLaWxsaW5nIENhdHMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.WTFke0DQS0r4AdxVOsuudFxZng7nwBjg8ONLQQuUosYMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC84MTU1NzY1OTlfMTIyMTI1ODg4NzcyODUwNzkxXzQxMzMyNzAxMDc1MTM2MTIxNl9uLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJXaHkgUG9sayBDb3VudHkgQW5pbWFsIENvbnRyb2wgTXVzdCBTdG9wIEtpbGxpbmcgQ2F0cyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.yZzB47sUlNRJTjCwPfy-pWSZzV-f0RaWNSWo6Ki_P80MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[15415,15222,15226,17348,3144,15387,15388],"class_list":["post-81021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-animal-control","tag-animal-welfare","tag-cat-rescue","tag-florida-pet-shelter","tag-sheriff-grady-judd","tag-spay-and-neuter","tag-tnvr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81021","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=81021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81023,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81021\/revisions\/81023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}