Please voice your concerns to Rockledge City Hall
690-3978 and Florida Game and Fish Commission (352) 955-2330. Call Earl
Jacobs if you can help 504-3668.
In March, the city of Rockledge plans to begin
construction of phase one on their new community sports park where they
plan to level 35 acres of pine flatwoods and bulldoze over 50 gopher
tortoise burrows. The city plans to bury alive this large population of
tortoises that will slowly suffocate or starve to death. Most of the
tortoises are concentrated in a small area near the eastern border. No
considerations were made in the design to protect the gopher tortoises
and their habitat. Rockledge is now applying for an Incidental Take
Permit that will legally allow them to destroy their natural habitat and
kill the tortoises. The gopher tortoises cannot be relocated because
they carry a common contagious infection known as Upper Respiratory
Tract Disease, URTD. Glatting Jackson, the consulting and planning firm
for the city, misled the Rockledge city council by telling them that
URTD is fatal and compared it to AIDS. When in fact, the mortality rate
is not known. URTD is a bacterial infection and gopher tortoises can
recover from the illness. URTD is no justification for killing gopher
tortoises.
The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) population has
been reduced 80% in the last 100 years by rampant urbanization. In
Florida it is listed as a "species of special concern". Ecologists
consider it a keystone species because their large burrows provide
shelter for over 358 species. Gopher tortoises can live 40 to 60 years.
Rockledge needs to change it's plans for the park so that the tortoises
and their habitat are preserved.
Go on to Animal
Rights Symposium
Return to 23 February 2000 Issue
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