- Dear Mayor Sikes-Kline, Vice Mayor Blonder, Commissioners Garris, DePreter and Springfield, Ms. Ms. Lopez, Mr. Birchim and Ms. Galambos, Sheriff Hardwick, et al.: 1. Pursuant to St. Augustine City Ordinance 1-8, providing for jail time and misdemeanor prosecutions for possible ordinance violations, would you please be so kind as to send me the City's staff reports, contingency plans and operational protocols for a possible civil, criminal and administrative investigation of County Carriages and the preventable deaths of carriage horses, including those housed and living in City-owned stables in the City of St. Augustine in St. Johns County?2. Please provide the name and contact information ASAP for whatever non-PR professional whom the City of St. Augustine is designating as a point of contact on horse protection in the City?3. Would you please be so kind as to place interpretation and enforcement of the City's contracts and ordinances involving horse protection and animal rights on the Monday, January 26, 2026 St. Augustine City Commission agenda? The public interest urgently requires it..4. As Sir Winston Spencer Churchill said to the British Parliament in 1937: "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.5. Please hold an urgent public all hands meeting on horse protection for all City employees including SAPD.6. Please approve and issue a City of St. Augustine Request for Proposals and Qualifications for veterinary medicine, environmental science, hazardous waste cleanup, microbiology, biosecurity and epidemiology advice on the necessary and proper quarantine monitoring of the City's horse barn.7. Please expedite your response to all of my pending records requests on horse protection. Please make it available online and to potential bidders.8. In the midst of an outbreak of fatal, preventable horse diseases, we have a Right to Know. F.S. 119; Florida Constitution Article I, Section 24, which was adopted by 3,800,000 voters (83% in 1992.9. Effective January 8, 2026, there has been an "Official Quarantine" due to an outbreak of Strangles arising in a local stable. Strangles is a communicable disease spread by Streptococcus equi subsp equi. affecting some 22 horses in St. Johns County. See Alert No. 4827; Outbreak Identifier 7287.https://equinediseasecc.org/alert10. The Equine Disease Communications Center reports:What is Strangles?The upper respiratory disease commonly referred to as strangles is caused by Streptococcus equi subsp equi. Strangles is spread from horse to horse through direct contact. Horses can also contract the disease by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces. The disease is highly infectious.Clinical Signs: The incubation period for Strangles is 3 to 8 days, at which point the following clinical signs may appear:Fever, usually preceding other clinical signs by 24-48 hoursAbscesses in the mandibular lymph nodes (in the throatlatch and below the jaw)Nasal discharge: often thick white and yellow mucusInflammation of the throatDifficulty swallowingWheezingCoughingPurpura hemorrhagica is a vasculitis which can be caused by Streptococcus equi. It results in bleeding which causes red spots on the mucous membranes and swelling of the limbs and head (rare; only in cases with complications)Diagnosis: Diagnosis is made through culture of nasal wash, nasal swab, or pus aspirated from abscesses or through PCR testing.Treatment: Supportive care is the primary treatment. Use of antibiotics in infected horses is restricted to those with severe clinical signs such as respiratory difficulty as most horses recover without antibiotic treatment. Horses treated with antibiotics early in the course of infection may avoid lymph node abscesses but may not develop immunity to the disease. Treatment decisions should be made by a veterinarian.Prevention: An intranasal vaccine is available but is not effective against all infections. Any surfaces that are contaminated with mucus or other nasal discharge from infected horses pose a threat of infection to healthy horses. Affected horses should be isolated and increased biosecurity practiced.https://equinediseasecc.org/stranglesINVESTIGATION OF COUNTRY CARRIAGES, INC., et al.11. Please commission and commence an independent investigation of COUNTRY CARRIAGES, INC., with assistance by local, state and federal agencies and experts on veterinary medicine, epidemiology, bioethics, biosecurity, veterinary medicine, environmental science, hazardous waste cleanup, microbiology, biosecurity and epidemiology.12. Please do not permit COUNTRY CARRIAGES,INC. to obstruct lengthy, necessary and proper quarantine and veterinary health monitoring of the City's horse population13. When did the City of St. Augustine first learn of the January 8, 2026 Official Quarantine? Please send documents.14. When did Country Carriages, Inc. inform the City of the outbreak? Please provide documents.15. Why did Country Carriages, Inc. provide an incomplete and materially false and misleading Facebook post about taking a "break" without informing readers of the Strangles outbreak and Official Quarantine?16. On January 9, 2026 at 4:23 pm, Country Carriages, Inc. stated on its Facebook page, "Hi everyone we will be closed for the rest of January. We are taking this time to give our horses and employees a break. We will keep you posted with reopening info. You are able to go to our bookings for any time after Feb 10th."17. What is going on here? What makes Country Carriages, Inc. so utterly insouciant and insensitive to animal rights? CCI has no jurisdiction or competence to obstruct the Official Quarantine or to declare in advance when it will end. Enough..18. Such corporate arrogance is unworthy. It is beneath the peace and dignity of a free people..19. Has the City of St. Augustine delegated to an corporation its policy on an equine and public health emergency? Has the City illegally delegated its police powers and regulatory authority? Who reviewed Country Carriage's the incomplete and materially false and misleading Facebook post about its putative "break" without publicly disclosing the outbreak? Please provide documents ASAP on Monday, January 12, 2026.20. Was Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline informed about the outbreak? Please provide documents, dates and details.21. Was Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder informeed about the outbreak? Please provide documents, dates and details.22. Was Commissioner Cynthia Garris informed about the outbreak? Please provide documents, dates and details.23. Was Commissioner James Springfield informed about the outbreak? Please provide documents, dates and details.24. Was Commissioner John DePrater informed about the outbreak? Please provide documents, dates and details.25. What information has the City provided to horse and carriage companies about Strangles, including photos?https://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/phag/files/2024/03/DeNotta-nasal-discharge-from-a-horse-with-strangles.jpg26. Did Country Carriages, Inc. or the City post Quarantine signs? Please provide photos, videotapes, documents, affidavits, declarations and other documents.27. Please provide the names, genders, ages and photos of all horses under quarantine, or otherwise.28. Please provide for continuing health reports and public announcements regarding every single horse under quarantine.29. What contacts have the Mayor, Police Chief, City Attorney and City Commissioners had with veterinary professionals and law enforcement? Please provide timeline.30. Please provide all documents, affidavits, declarations and photographs, including all interviews on the etiology of the outbreak.31. No coverups, please. The whole world is watching.32. Please read, learn, study and comply with veterinary medicine and scientific standards See American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Consensus Statement on Control of Outbreaks and Outbreak Investigations, https://web.archive.org/web/20070811005028/http://acvim.org/uploadedFiles/Consensus_Statements/Strangles.pdf:33. Please inform all City employees, contractors, City licensees, their owners, investors, counsel of theri God-given legal and constitutional rights to make reports and disclosures under our United States and Florida Constiutions and laws, without fear of retaliation of ny kind.34. Again, please provide detailed answers and set this grave matter for an open public hearing, with public comment and with any fact witnesses asked to testify under oath at the January 26, 2026 St. Augustine City Commission meeting. "Why not the best?" (as Admiral Hyman Rickover asked a 1947 recent Naval Academy graduate, Jimmy Carter, in his job interview for the Nuclear Navy). https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/february/carter-rickover-relationshipThank you for your prompt attention to this grave and urgent matterOn Friday, January 9, 2026 at 04:57:56 PM EST, Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> wrote:Dear Mr. Birchim, Ms. Lopez and Ms. Galambos:Would you please be so kind as to e-mail me the PDF,s by Monday, January 12, 2026 at Noon, of all reports or complaints or necropsies or investigations or prosections reL dead horses in St. Augustine, Florida, including but not limited to those allegedly associated with Country Carriages, Inc.?Thank you.With kindest regards, I am,Sincerely yours,Ed SlavinBox 3084St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084www.edslavin.com(904) 377-4998Photo credit: University of Florida
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Help Protect 22 Sick Horses: City of St. Augustine's Horse Protection Laws MUST Be Enforced. (Ed Slavin letter to City of St. Augustine and Sheriff)
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