Orange to discuss pet-friendly dining and restricting pet sales
Tuesday is shaping up as a dog day for Orange County commissioners.
The board’s agenda includes two canine-related discussion topics, one dealing with a petfriendly dining policy and another that could lead Orange to become the latest Central Florida county to enact rules restricting retail pet sales of dogs and cats.
Stina D’Uva, president/CEO of the West Orange Chamber of Commerce, urged Mayor Teresa Jacobs last year to push for a doggie-dining ordinance so restaurants such as Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha don’t find themselves in the county’s doghouse for serving customers with pets.
“We are trying to help our businesses,” said D’Uva, who sometimes noshes at pet-friendly Winter Garden restaurants with her son’s dog, Franklin, a Labradoodle.
Though Yellow Dog Eats is listed as a pet-friendly place on BringFido.com, an online hotel and restaurant guide for pet-owners, the restaurant with a menu featuring sandwich entrees named the “Classic Mexican Mutt” and “Hot Diggity Dawg,” can’t legally allow pooches, except for service animals, in its outdoor dining area because the eatery is located in Gotha in unincorpo-
rated Orange, which lacks an authorizing ordinance.
But at the Attic Door, a restaurant six miles away in Winter Garden where city commissioners enacted a doggie-dining ordinance about a decade ago, a server can fetch food for a customer with Fido and without fear of fines.
“We’re pretty much a dog-friendly town,” Winter Garden City Manager Mike Bollhoefer said. “No problems.”
Many restaurants on Plant Street downtown have outdoor seating, a requirement for doggie dining. Most take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ordinance, he said.
“Come down to our farmers’ market any Saturday — there’s dogs everywhere,” Bollhoefer said.
Orlando, Winter Park, Mount Dora and Oviedo also have ordinances allowing doggie dining.
Jacobs, a dog-lover, is in favor of a county ordinance.
Florida was the first in the nation to enact a law allowing dogs in outdoor areas of restaurants.
The "doggie dining" bill, which was sponsored by former state Rep. Sheri McInvale, an Orlando Republican, went into effect July 1, 2006. It requires a local ordinance.
According to the state Department of Professional and Business Regulation, the ordinance must require restaurants to apply for a local permit, restrict patrons with pets to an outdoor dining area and carry liability insurance. Also, the agency’s website points out, “Pet dogs are still prohibited inside food service establishments, including traveling through the establishment.”
Dog-friendly communities are happier places, said Erin Ballinger, a spokeswoman for BringFido.com, which maintains listings of pet-friendly hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
“Especially since people are working so much now, you may feel guilty that you are leaving your pet at home alone all the time,” she said. “If you knew there was a pet-friendly brewery or ice-cream shop where you could get your dog a sweet little frozen yogurt, you’d go. He’s going to love it and you’re going to have a lot of fun, too.”
But not everyone is a dog person.
Some customers complain about barking, illtempered animals and just eating around dogs.
A restaurant in Winter Park stopped allowing patrons to bring dogs several years ago because of customer complaints.
Also Tuesday, Orange County commissioners will discuss imposing rules restricting high-volume pet breeders.
The operations, commonly called “puppy mills,” may place profits above animal welfare and could hurt efforts by the county animal shelter and its partners to find homes for animals in their care, County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said in a memo this month.
Both Lake and Seminole counties recently enacted similar ordinances restricting pet-shop sales of dogs and cats.
In February, Seminole commissioners unanimously agreed to require pet shops to offer only dogs and cats obtained from animal shelters or rescue organizations. The ordinance also banned the sale of dogs or cats on public thoroughfares, flea markets, festivals, yard sales, outdoor markets and parking lots in unincorporated areas.
Animal advocates applauded the new rules.
Carla Wilson, coordinator of ARFF, the nonprofit Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, lauded Seminole commissioners when they approved the measure in February and Lake commissioners when they OK’d it in May.
Across Florida, nearly 60 counties and cities have enacted similar ordinances.
Rules limiting the availability of puppies and kittens in the retail market also may have a positive effect on adoptions from Orange County Animal Services and its partners — which could cut the county's costs of caring for and euthanizing unwanted animals.
Seminole’s rules impose fines of $50 for a first offense and an additional $50 for a second violation. In Lake, violators are subject to a $500 fine.
No pet stores, attempting to sell these animals, are open in the unincorporated area, a Seminole spokesman said.
Commissioners aren’t expected to take action on either pet-related issue on Tuesday.