{"id":40305,"date":"2016-06-27T20:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=40305"},"modified":"2016-06-27T20:28:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:28:43","slug":"captive-monkeys-get-their-day-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/06\/captive-monkeys-get-their-day-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Captive Monkeys Get Their Day in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_40306\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40306\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40306\" title=\"JaneVelezMitchell\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/JaneVelezMitchell-300x155.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"155\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/JaneVelezMitchell-300x155.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/JaneVelezMitchell.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40306\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jane Velez-Mitchell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nearly 35 spectators, including independent journalist\u00a0Jane Velez-Mitchell, were at the first day of a trial alleging\u00a0Hendry County\u00a0broke Florida\u2019s Sunshine Law when it permitted two massive monkey farms without public input.<\/p>\n<p>Three plaintiffs, represented by attorneys from the nonprofit\u00a0Animal Legal Defense Fund, say they had no idea their rural neighborhood would soon house thousands of macaque monkeys.<\/p>\n<p>The county maintains that as long as land is zoned for agriculture, any species could be allowed. The public doesn\u2019t need to be notified about such facilities because staffers are in charge of their vetting and approval. At no time did two\u00a0elected officials meet about the farm, the county contends, so there was no violation of the law.<\/p>\n<p>In her opening statements, plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Justine Cowan said, \u201cWhat my clients are seeking is so reasonable: They just want a voice in what is happening in their backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Edward Dion, representing the county, said the Sunshine Law \u201cIs supposed to prevent officials from meeting in secret. (It) doesn\u2019t require that people be notified of routine decisions by county staff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Plaintiff Billy Stephens lives less than half a mile from one of the sites, on the Lee County border along Bedman Creek, a Caloosahatchee tributary. He spent years pouring money and labor into his 5-acre homestead, which he was counting on for his retirement. He wishes officials had warned him about the monkey farm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHad I known it was coming, I wouldn\u2019t have bought there,\u201d Stephens said. \u201cHomes are foreclosing out there now; nobody can sell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephens\u2019 fellow plaintiffs echoed his dismay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly 35 spectators, including independent journalist\u00a0Jane Velez-Mitchell, were at the first day of a trial alleging\u00a0Hendry County\u00a0broke Florida\u2019s Sunshine Law when it permitted two massive monkey farms without public input.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}