POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Wearing purple ribbons on their lapels, dozens of people called out of work or adjusted their plans to attend a Tuesday morning meeting of the Polk County Board of County Commissioners.
“This is a crisis, and we as a county must do better,” one of them, Kay Bourke, told commissioners.
WATCH Advocates push commissioners for change at Polk County animal shelter
They attended the meeting to speak for Polk County’s dogs and cats, roughly a month after an ABC Action News report put Polk County Animal Control in the spotlight.
WATCH: Polk animal shelter timeline
According to records from the University of Florida’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, the Polk County shelter’s “Live Outcome Rate” was 58% in 2024, which means 42% of animals did not leave the county shelter alive.
However, that wasn’t the 2024 statistic that raised the biggest red flag.
In 2024, 401 dogs and cats combined died in the shelter for reasons not related to euthanasia.
Additionally, 564 animals escaped from the shelter. The vast majority of those escapees were cats.
When you look around the state, those numbers are higher than in many other counties.
A recent former employee of Polk County Animal Control, who asked for his identity be concealed out of fear of retaliation, said he is still haunted by what he saw, heard, and smelled while at Polk County Animal Control.
“I go to bed. I pray. I pray for every single one of those dogs. I know so many won’t make it out alive,” he said. “And that’s the hard part.”
One month later, dozens from across Polk County — from Lakeland to Bartow, Fort Meade to Haines City — attended the commission meeting to request more oversight, more accountability, and better outcomes at Polk County Animal Control.
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“This is a failure of leadership that falls squarely on your shoulders,” said Eve Salimbene, the President of the Street Cat Project of Polk County.
Commissioners, however, were quick to disagree.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Grady Judd run Animal Control, and even though the county commission signs off on the sheriff’s annual budget, and therein the budget for Animal Control, Commissioner Bill Braswell ducked any responsibility or control of the department’s operations.
“You know the sheriff’s in charge,” he told the room. “For whatever reason, you guys think, because the budget comes through the [Board of County Commissioners], that we have some oversight. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“We don’t consult with the sheriff about his budget. They’re independent. They’re elected. The sheriff runs Animal Control, and he will continue to run Animal Control the way he sees fit,” Braswell continued.
However, animal advocates challenged that assertion.
“Y’all have the power to enact ordinances, don’t you?” one speaker, David Butler, asked the commission. “You can enact an ordinance to change the Animal Control shelter.”
Of the roughly two dozen who spoke, the animal advocates generally called for:
- A more robust spay/neuter program in Polk County
- An expanded voucher program that will allow more to spay/neuter their pets
- A Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) program to manage Polk County’s feral cat population
- An independent oversight committee to provide more accountability at Polk County Animal Control
- A more robust use of social media to increase adoptions at the county shelter
- Descriptions of animals’ behaviors and traits to improve the adoption rate
- A more fast-tracked process of vetting and accepting volunteers at the county shelter
- A measure to ban the tethering of dogs in Polk County
“We are not here to assign blame,” said Angie Lorio, the co-founder of the Polk County Bully Project. “We are here to ask for bold leadership and offer constructive solutions.”
After most of the crowd spoke, Commission Chair Rick Wilson offered a commitment.
“We’ll talk about it, discuss it, and one-on-one with Grady or whatever. But we understand. We’ve heard the same thing over and over and over,” he said. “We get it. We’re going to do what we can and go from there.”
But until change happens, many in the room said they will continue to use their voices.
Neither Sheriff Judd nor his command staff were in attendance as Polk County Animal Control was scrutinized.
So far, the sheriff’s office has rejected the criticism and defended its record at Animal Control.
“Animals at our facility are well-cared for by animal control members who love animals and work hard every day to make a difference,” Scott Wilder, the Director of Communications for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email. “This is truly a labor of love for our members. They work hard to care for, save, and adopt pets.”
Wilder said the Polk County Sheriff’s Office would not condone a TNVR program.
“[TNVR] colonies attract more intact cats (that continue to breed) because of the food provided to these colonies,” Wilder wrote. “Feral and at-large cats don’t live as long as well-cared-for indoor cats. They suffer predation by coyotes and other predators, they are killed by traffic, and they die of disease and untreated injuries.”
Wilder said the sheriff’s office is also helping SPCA Florida raise money for a spay/neuter program.
In multiple instances, ABC Action News requested an interview with the sheriff’s office and access to shoot video inside the shelter to independently verify conditions.
However, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has repeatedly declined that request and did so again on Tuesday.
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