The former Mayor of Margate and current Commissioner, Tommy Ruzzano, who publicly brands himself as the WORLD’S STRONGEST MAYOR, has now posted a message defending Larry Wallach and his Wildlife Adventures LLC. He claims Wallach had nothing to do with the Orlando sloth deaths; true but irrelevant. He claims Wallach “loves animals” and treats them like family. He then tells concerned residents to “get a life” and jokes that a sloth might sit beside him on the dais. He even misspelled dais.

This is not leadership. This is not oversight. This is not how a city responds when a man with a canceled USDA license, a guilty plea for wildlife trafficking, and more than sixty federal Animal Welfare Act violations attempts to open a sloth encounter business in their community.

His post raises a very simple question. Why is he defending Wallach so aggressively. Why is he attacking his own residents instead of listening to them. And why is he treating a serious animal welfare issue like a comedy routine.

People deserve to know whether Wallach or Wildlife Adventures LLC has any connection to the Commissioner or his circle. People deserve transparency. People deserve accountability. And people deserve better than being mocked for caring about animal welfare and public safety.

Margate residents are showing up because they do not want to become the next Orlando. They do not want fifty dead sloths in a warehouse. They do not want another operator with a long record of violations slipping into Florida because talk is cheap and oversight is weak.

The Commissioner can joke about sloths on the dais. The rest of us will stay focused on the facts.

https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-the-sloths-do-not-let-bandit-die-in-vain

You can also reach Commissioner Ruzzano here