FLORIDA RESIDENTS
HELP PROHIBIT THE PRACTICE OF COYOTE/FOX PENNING STATEWIDE
YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED!

Public outcry helped gain a temporary ban on coyote and fox penning in Florida in February. However, the battle to end this brutal practice is far from over. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has begun formal rulemaking procedures to address this controversial practice. Project Coyote, in partnership with HSUS, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and other national and local organizations, is working towards a permanent ban on penning and needs your assistance!

Photo Credit: John Harrison

Florida’s pens, in which packs of hunting dogs are released on a captive coyote or fox, have been shut down temporarily since February, while FWC staff draft this rule. Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto has said that if the rule seems inadequate, he favors shutting down the pens permanently.

On April 26 the staff of the FWC will hold its first workshop in Gainesville to hear from the public on the issue of coyote/fox penning. If you live in Florida, please consider attending and speaking up at the workshop to support permanently abolishing coyote/fox pens. Tell your Florida friends to attend too!

If you cannot attend, please email or write to the Commission. Coyote/fox pen supporters are a very small, but vocal minority in Florida. The Commission needs to hear from other Florida residents, who want to see coyote/fox pens abolished. Even if you have already written on this issue in response to our previous alerts, please send another letter as this is a different phase of this administrative rules process. Tell the Commission that the practice of coyote/fox penning is inherently cruel, cannot be regulated, and reflects badly on Florida where tourism is so important to the economy (for points to include in your letter, please see our previous action alert.

Please attend the Gainesville workshop on Monday, April 26, from 6 PM-8 PM at:
Hilton University of Florida Conference Center
1714 SW 34th Street,
Gainesville, FL 32607
Ph (352) 371-3600

There will be a second public workshop on Tuesday, May 4th at:
Holiday Inn, North I-10 & US 27
2725 Graves Road, Tallahassee, FL 32303
Ph (850) 526-2007

You may contact the Commission members online by using this webpage:
myfwc.com/Contact/Contact_Employee.asp

Or send a letter directly to the Commissioners at:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600

Your voice will join that of Project Coyote and AWI which sent a formal letter to the Commission in February, co-signed by more than 60 prominent scientists, wildlife biologists, veterinarians, ethicists and attorneys urging the agency to prohibit the unconscionable practice of coyote/fox penning. To read more about this issue, visit the FWC’s website at:

myfwc.com/NEWSROOM/10/statewide/News_10_X_FoxPen1.htm

For more information, check out these news articles:

FWC shuts down Florida fox pens
www.newsherald.com/news/pens-81528-apalachicola-shuts.html

FWC to hold meetings on fox, coyote pens
www.ocala.com/article/20100419/ARTICLES/100419688/1402/NEWS?tc=ar

THANK YOU for taking action for America’s wild “song dog!”

Camilla H. Fox
Founding Director

****************************************

Project Coyote is a non-profit fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute that promotes educated coexistence between people and coyotes and advocates on behalf of coyotes and other native carnivores. We depend on our members and supporters to help us continue our work on behalf of America’s native “song dog.” Please join us today! All donations are tax-deductible. Visit us at www.ProjectCoyote.org.