For 45 years, Florida has banned the dyeing of animals- usually rabbits and chicks- for Easter. Now, one dog groomer in South Florida has single-handedly convinced all but eight members of the legislature to overturn the ban. This would make it legal to dye animals only a few days old and sell them like Easter eggs.
The reason the practice was made illegal in the first place was apparently the high number of animals that were killed during the dying process- the dyes are usually toxic, especially to young animals. Even when they survive ingesting the chemicals, Easter pets are often neglected to death, abandoned, or dropped off at overburdened shelters. This is a bad, bad idea on many levels.
I think this quote from the Sun-Sentinel’s story captures the Legislature’s thought processes- or lack of them- nicely:
Bogdanoff did not realize the amendment would also allow bunnies and chicks to be sold when they are just days old, said Aaron Nevins, her legislative aide.
“Oops,” he said. “That’s an unintended consequence. We had no clue.”
No, you apparently did not.
Amendment 303390, allowing the artificial dyeing or coloring of animals is now on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk. If he doesn’t veto it, it goes into effect this summer. You can urge him to veto Amendment 303390 here.
7 replies on “Florida to allow dyeing pets?”
Things like this are why people think Southerners are stupid.
It’s not really fair to call this a Southern thing, because it’s actually already legal in several states across the U.S. But I think it IS fair to call it an example of bad lawmaking.
Reblogged this on dou dou birds and commented:
Floridians lose their senses – oops.. duh
Please email the Governor before they do something really stupid!
sad 🙁
Aaaack! Stupid, stupid, stuipd.
I do not know why there is so much focus on the bunny & chicken side of this when it should be known there are hundreds of groomers in Florida who signed a petition to allow this. There are creative grooming competitions all over the country where this is allowed, and the one show here in Florida really misses out and is small because this hasn’t been allowed.There are products made specifically for pets that are safe to use. The fact that Florida was one of two states that didn’t allow this made us look stupid!
There are also many owners who like this service too as it can look very cute for a toy poodle to have pink ears and a pink tail. It is not cruel or unsafe.
If you actually read the blog post, you’d see exactly what the objections are- while there may be pet owners that want to dye just their dog’s ears pink, there are other people who will dunk animals wholesale into buckets of dye to bump up sales. These dyes are often NOT safe, and are toxic to these animals. There’s also a big difference between a pink-eared poodle and dozens of chicks and rabbits being completely covered in dye, sold, and later dumped out on the streets when they grow up- if they survive the toxic dye. There could have been a smart way to amend the ban to allow what you’re talking about- but this was not it.