Last year, the Florida legislature reversed a nearly 50-year-old ban on dyeing animals artificial colors.
Thursday, Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, sponsored a bill that would reinstate that ban, reversing arguably one of the most ridiculous bills passed last year.
Sachs's one-time opponent Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, sponsored the 2012 bill to give Florida pet groomers a fighting chance in pet shows and competitions.
Bogdanoff's bill was approved 33 to 3 in the Florida Senate and 109 to 5 on the House floor.
Local animal rights groups asked Governor Rick Scott to veto the bill.
Don Anthony of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida told the New York Times, “This law has protected thousands of animals from neglect and abuse, and it shouldn’t be lifted on the whim of one dog groomer who wants to dye poodles purple.”
Thousands of baby chicks are artificially colored for the Spring holiday -- either by being sprayed as newborns or when their eggs are injected with a dye.
While poultry ranchers attest that the dye, so long it’s non-toxic, has no lasting effects on the animals, groups like the Humane Society say the practice results in thousands of discarded chicks every Easter.
Sachs's bill would also reinstates the ban on selling baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under 4 weeks old and rabbits under 2 months old.
