Updated July6 2021 4:00 PM.
Pets are family. End of story. They are not disposable, or “JUST” a cat or dog. Anyone that thinks otherwise is misinformed, uneducated and has no value to the human race, as a productive member of society, It does not matter what position they hold in life, they are not smart enough to hold that position. Case in point, Michael Hanzman. He was appointed to be a judge in Florida by Republican former Governor Rick Scott. He had a no brainer motion in front of him, filed by Stacy Karron, a paralegal and trained animal rescue technician.
Karron wanted to go into the Champlain apartments to retrieve the pets that displaced people left behind. This is the condo towers that had a building collapse.. She knew the danger and she was willing to sacrifice herself to save animals. There was at least one cat still trapped inside a condo that was scheduled to be torn down. To walk up four flights stairs, retrieve a cat, would have taken 30 to 45 minutes tops. Hanzman, in his infinite wisdom refused to allow this to happen, and the cat was most probably killed when he ordered the building to come down. She knew the exact location of where this cat was. The reports that city officials made a search for pets is not 100 percent accurate. By their own admission, they did not check every unit. By saying they checked without examining each and every unit is a false narrative. It simply is not true.
There were two buildings either had collapsed and killed many people. The other building was left standing. People were evacuated and many could not take their pets, thinking they would get them later. There was a danger that this building could come down, but that was not a certainty. Hanzman could have provided a window of time for animals to be rescued. He did not. He bowed to pressure and believed the danger too real, with a hurricane coming in. Karron was not going anywhere near the building that collapsed.
In his ruling, Judge Hanzman said he lacked jurisdiction to override the order to tear down the building that was given by the Mayor and the executive branch. The judge said that even if the court had the authority to step-in and enjoin the demolition, it would not do so under the present circumstances., there by placing Ms. Karron and others at substantial risk,”.
Going into a building is dangerous. That is why Karron said that she would release from harm anyone involved in letting her in. The city of Miami, though a statement said that there were sweeps for animals but no animals were found. Anyone that knows anything about animals knows they will be frightened and hiding. They will not be sitting on a couch waiting for rescue.
To their credit, the fire department tried to coax the cat to a balcony with food. It did not work. A City officials alleged it was too dangerous to go door to door to search for pets. Even with a trained rescue technician doing this, Hanzman ruled against animal life, and cavalierly issued a statement “Despite these Herculean efforts and the tireless, daunting work that has been done, there is going to be loss of life here…loss of human life and animal life.”