Pets Broward to Protest "No Kill" at Broward County Animal Shelter This Saturday

Last month, animal advocates from Pets Broward held a peaceful protest at the groundbreaking ceremony for Broward County's new $15.2 million, 40,000-square-foot animal care shelter. The protest focused mainly on the county not keeping to the no-kill resolution commissioners ceremoniously instituted in 2012, as well as the overall poorly managed animal shelter by county officials.

And this Saturday, Pets Broward will be back at it, this time at the current shelter, located at 1870 SW 39th St. in Fort Lauderdale, to make sure  the county knows they're still there, and they're still unhappy about how things are being run.

"We had over 50 protesters show up, and we actually outnumber the people who came for the groundbreaking," Meredith Bruder, Pets Broward founder and co-director tells New Times of the new shelter protest. "Everybody was respectful and civil just as we wanted, and it all went down smoothly."

The group says that it has received approval from Broward Sheriff’s Office and Fort Lauderdale International Airport, where the current shelter is located.

The new shelter is finally starting after a seven year wait because the FAA needs its land back, Bruder explains. 

Pets Broward will once again be calling out Broward County Animal Care's leadership. The group has made it their intention to point out how current director, Susan Pierce, has no experience operating a shelter. Pierce, the group says, has not been held accountable for the lack of euthanasia rate reductions in the county.

Pets Broward says they will be presenting County Administrator Bertha Henry with a petition for Pierce's removal in a few weeks.

The county has also failed to develop or implement the no-kill resolution, the group says. No Kill states that no healthy and adoptable animal will be euthanized. At the time it was implemented, the resolution was nonbonding, and aspirational. But numbers show that the spirit of the resolution is being violated in a major way, if not completely ignored. According to the data, 27,232 animals have been put down at Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center since the resolution was agreed upon by county commissioners. 

"In the 38 months since No Kill's passing, over 40,000 more innocent pets have been killed while we wait," Bruder says.

Saturday's protest, which will feature signs and placards, is all about reminding the county that Pets Broward and other concerned citizens aren't going to go away.

“We are coming back again to make a point,” says Bruder.

Pets Browards' protest will be held this Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the current Broward County Animal Shelter.