Miami-Dade

ANIMAL WELFARE

Pets Trust founder takes to the cage

 

Mike Rosenberg plans to spend a weekend living like an unwanted shelter pet to promote a measure that would help Miami-Dade reach its “no kill’’ goal.

 

Michael Rosenberg, a Kendall businessman, recently tried out a dog run at Miami-Dade Animal Services, where he plans to spend the weekend of Oct. 6-7. He wants to increase adoptions at the Medley shelter and dramatize the need for voters to approve the Pets Trust straw ballot during the Nov. 6 elections. The dog in the adjacent cage is one of 34,000 unwanted pets that enter the shelter annually.
Michael Rosenberg, a Kendall businessman, recently tried out a dog run at Miami-Dade Animal Services, where he plans to spend the weekend of Oct. 6-7. He wants to increase adoptions at the Medley shelter and dramatize the need for voters to approve the Pets Trust straw ballot during the Nov. 6 elections. The dog in the adjacent cage is one of 34,000 unwanted pets that enter the shelter annually.
LIAM CROTTY / Pets Trust

TO ADOPT

Miami-Dade County Animal Services Department is located at 7401 NW 74th St., Medley. For more information, call 305-418-7127 or visit http://www.miamidade.gov/animals.

Regular adoption fees for the weekend of Oct. 6-7 will be reduced to $25 for the Pets Trust adoption event.

For more information on Pets Trust, visit petstrustmiami.com.


ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com

Only one creature in a cage at Miami-Dade Animal Services during the Oct. 6-7 weekend won’t be hoping for a new family: the one wearing jeans and glasses.

That will be Michael Rosenberg, Kendall businessman. He plans to move into a dog run to promote a discounted-rate adoption blitz and promote an animal-care proposal.

“Our goal is to adopt out every animal in the shelter and leave only the human, and bring awareness to the Pets Trust ballot issue,’’ said Rosenberg, 60.

The ballot issue is meant to gauge public support for a fund that would further the county’s commitment to curbing pet overpopulation, and bring down the euthanasia rate at the shelter.

On the Nov. 6 ballot, voters will be asked whether property owners should pay an extra $10 per $100,000 of value to keep about 20,000 cats and dogs from dying every year a the shelter.

A “yes’’ vote on #240 approves the measure, which advocates say is the only way to meet the county’s recently adopted “no kill’’ goal: saving 90 percent of shelter animals.

The result wouldn’t actually establish the Trust, but would indicate to County Commissioners that citizens favor the concept. The commission would then have to approve it.

The Trust would raise about $20 million a year for clinics offering free or low-cost spay/neuter and veterinary care services, administered by nonprofits, not the county. It would also underwrite community campaigns and school curricula promoting responsible pet ownership.

Animal Services administrators have given Rosenberg their blessing — and won’t feed him kibble. No animals will be displaced to make room for him, said Director Alex Munoz.

“Dog Whisperer’’ Cesar Millan also endorses the effort.

“I hope you are the last one in that cage, my friend,’’ Millan said in a video message to Rosenberg, who’ll be “surrendered,’’ like an unwanted pet, in the shelter’s receiving area at 5 p.m. Oct. 5.

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