Lisa Grossman drove all the way from Jacksonville with a few of her friends to stand under an overcast sky and hold signs for the cars whizzing by on Northwest 43rd Street.
She did this because she feels it’s her responsibility to speak out against the removal of animals from Paynes Prairie.
“Animals can’t speak for themselves,” Grossman, 49, said. “They have a certain trust in where they live and their freedom, and such the opposite is about to happen.”
Grossman organized Saturday’s protest to raise awareness about the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s plan to remove some of the Paynes Prairie animals, including all males, to prevent inbreeding and keep them from getting into nearby properties.
But opponents of the plan fear the horses and bison on the prairie would be handed over to companies who would have the animals treated unfairly or killed.
“I call them pony pimps,” Grossman said. “[The animals] will be whipped and broken, while for decades they’ve been free, free, free.”
Melinda Eckert also drove from Jacksonville to take part in the demonstration.
Eckert held a sign out to passing cars that read “sale = slaughter.”
“I hate to see an animal taken off of its natural habitat and disposed of,” she said. “I think it’s an act of injustice.”
Olivia Martin, a UF junior studying wildlife conservation, joined the group and bent down to finish her homemade sign, coloring in the words “share our prairie.”
“Just from an ethical standpoint, the bison don’t deserve to be removed from their homeland,” Martin said.
