THE PETS’ TRUST PETITION
TO SAVE OUR ANIMALS AND TO HONOR OUR DEMOCRACY

In 2012, the Miami Dade County Mayor and Board of County commissioners, represented and promised to place the Pets’ Trust Initiative measure on the 2012 ballot. Our elected officials also publicly and on record pledged that if the Pets’ Trust Initiative is passed by the residents of Miami-Dade County, that they would “Honor the Will of the People.”

Accordingly, in November 2012, close to 500,000 Miami Dade County Residents overwhelmingly voted to pass and create the Pets’ Trust Program. In doing so, Miami-Dade voters significantly approved this initiative which would end the tragic killing of animals in Miami-Dade County by creating several life-saving programs and funding through the Pets’ Trust. Voters gladly agreed to fund this Trust by paying a nominal Countywide Property tax. This nominal tax of .1079 mills (averaging $15) per home, would raise at least Twenty Million Dollars, which would be applied to this life saving model for our community, and an example to be followed by the nation.

Following the 2012 Election and the voter approved Pets’ Trust Resolution, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez, repeatedly stated on the record, that he would honor the will of the people and create the Pets’ Trust. For several months following the election, our Mayor consistently stated that he would approve the voter agreed upon Pets’ Trust Initiative, and officially pass it into law during the 2013 Fiscal Calendar. In spite of the consistent promises to honor the will of the people, Mayor Giménez and the Board of County Commissioners, doubled back on their promise and now claim “that the people really did not know what they were voting for.” Sadly, politics and personal agendas were used to subvert the will of the Miami-Dade voters; and the Pets’ Trust Initiative was eviscerated and destroyed by the very elected officials that drafted the measure and promised to put it into law if the people agreed.

Now, as a result of this cold breach of the people’s trust, breach of the fiduciary duties of our elected officials, and the blatant disregard of our democratic process, countless dogs and cats have tragically continued to be needlessly “Killed” by our Miami-Dade County Shelter, at the hands of our Miami-Dade County Commissioners and our sitting Mayor, who have Failed to Act and Failed to follow through on the Pledge publicly and affirmatively made to their constituents. As such, we as citizens in support of the Pets’ Trust, have been injured by this egregious breach of conduct.