County Advances Animal Welfare Policy, Projects
By Lisa Neff
Manatee County’s dogs will have their days.
By 2026’s dog days of summer, Manatee County plans to have opened a new animal adoption center and a new animal-based community center.
The county is at work on renovating the Bishop Animal Shelter property and creating an animal community center, as well as implementing a new retail ordinance intended to improve conditions for pets, dogs in particular.
County commissioners took three votes — all of them passed 7-0 — related to animal welfare during a June 3 meeting in Bradenton. The commissioners:
• Approved an addendum to a guaranteed maximum price agreement allowing the construction services department to move forward with creating an animal community center.
The center, to be located in a county-owned building near 17th Avenue West and Fourth Street West in Bradenton, will offer a range of support and services for pet owners and pets.
“One of the ways we can help eliminate capacity” at shelters “is to encourage people not to turn their pets in,” said Commission Chair George Kruse, District 7, who described the center as a “best in class” project that should inspire other communities.
The project involves the interior renovation of about 4,500 square feet of shell office space to include drywall, insulation, ceiling tiles, flooring, windows, doors, office space build-out, a meeting room, a pet food pantry, small medical room and more.
Construction could begin this month and be completed by next spring at maximum price of $2,068,788.
A project booster is the Manatee County Foundation, which provided a $50,000 grant.
• Approved an addendum to an agreement for phase two of work at Bishop, 5718 21st Ave. W., Bradenton.
The work includes constructing a new pet adoption building, which could be completed by next summer.
The maximum price would be $5,840,083.
Phase one, which is underway with a deadline of December, includes adding prefab kennels, fencing for animal areas and creating a temporary adoption building.
“We’ve been putting a lot of effort into animal welfare,” Kruse said.
He added, “These are great initiatives. A couple of them have been longer than anyone would have wanted but we’re going full speed. … Go build us some animal stuff.”
• Adopted an ordinance amending county code to govern the retail sales of animals.
The ordinance, modeled on a Pinellas County measure that’s withstood legal challenges and building on regulations adopted in 2024 for Manatee, prohibits future stores from selling dogs and cats.
The “whereas” section of the 26-page ordinance states, in part, these findings:
Data and research reviewed by Manatee County Animal Services staff shows the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not adequately regulating the dog breeding industry and is failing to safeguard the health and welfare of the dogs being produced by the industry and shipped to local pet stores for retail sale;
Some commercial animal breeders operate unsanitary and inhumane breeding facilities for dogs in which the health of the dogs is disregarded;
Some retail pet sales establishments purchase animals from commercial breeders that operate unsanitary and inhumane breeding facilities.
And so, the commission decided to:
Ban the sale of pets at new retail stores. This does not prohibit stores from facilitating adoptions from shelters or other organizations and it also does not prohibit small-scale breeders from operating.
Regulate the expansion or relocation within Manatee of existing stores selling pets — there are three such stores.
Modify regulations surrounding the operations of existing retail pet stores for animal health and welfare standards.
The ordinance was not adopted without a discussion on business competition, the humane treatment of animals, state interference and home rule.
Commissioners in 2021 adopted an ordinance banning the retail sale of dogs and cats but the board overturned the measure after the Florida Legislature in 2023 passed Senate Bill 170 enabling businesses to sue local governments to halt enforcement of ordinances that impact their bottom line.
The county in 2024 implemented an ordinance with new rules and inspection requirements intended to protect animals and earlier this year commissioners asked for another ordinance on retail sales.
About the new ordinance, Commissioner Mike Rahn, District 4, said, “I believe we have delivered a really comprehensive retail ordinance that protects all pets.”
Kruse called it a “reasonable compromise.”
“The best option is what we did in 2021,” he said.
Then, Kruse added, “This is the best-case scenario adhering to what the state allows us to do.”