by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
With animal care and control remaining a hot topic in Duval County, City Council members have decided to become proactive in suggesting policy changes.
Council member Jerry Holland said he will propose an animal control subcommittee, which Holland would likely chair, to Council president Lad Daniels. Local interest in animal control has increased following the recent firing of Animal Care and Control chief John Merritt, who had a tempestuous relationship with local animal advocates. Merritt remains on the job in an interim capacity.
“Mayor [John] Delaney was working on some legislation at one time that was going to address the current laws we have in place regarding animal care and control here,” said Holland. “It was never introduced, so what we did was go back and take another look at what he was working on to see what we could use now.”
According to Holland, representatives from various local animal advocate groups were invited to review the former mayor’s bill to see what could be salvaged and what needed to be revised.
“The animal control laws in Jacksonville haven’t been updated for some time, so we were really interested to see what was working and what wasn’t,” said Holland. “We’ve done that and now we’re having our attorneys here take a look at it so we can move forward and get something introduced.”
Following a green light from the General Counsel’s Office, Holland said he expects to rally support from other Council members.
Council member Sharon Copeland, who admitted she was unsure of what action the Council is authorized to take, is among those who have already expressed an interest in becoming active in an animal control subcommittee.
“I’m an animal lover and it’s incredibly heartbreaking and appalling to hear about animals who are treated so cruelly at the hands of our own agencies,” she said. “I will personally do whatever I have to do to help. It’s obvious there are policies and procedures that are highly flawed and we have a responsibility to make positive changes before things get any worse. There’s no excuse or reason for that.”
Holland said the goal of the subcommittee was simple.
“We’re interested in reviewing policy,” he said. “That’s the issue. We might look at different guidelines concerning punishments, for example. We might go back and look at how many animals can be confined for how long, things like that. Problems we have had in the past may be the result of a management mistake, but we are concerned about how that office is being run.”