By Kevin Deutsch
Concerns over alleged animal abuse at a Margate amusement fair prompted the lawyer for the event operator to ensure city commissioners “there won’t be animal acts” at its scheduled Fall event.
But the fair as planned would still include a “robust agriculture show” featuring live animals.
Joshua Rydell, mayor of neighboring Coconut Creek and the lawyer representing the fair operator, Harlan Bast, told Margate commissioners at an August Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, “there was no intent by my client to be disingenuous” regarding the much-criticized monkey act at last November’s fair.
According to the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the event’s “Banana Derby” was “a rodeo-like spectacle in which terrified capuchin monkeys [were] chained to dogs who race at high speeds,” in apparent violation of local law.
The monkey shows were held on weekdays and weekends at the fairgrounds at 1000 N. State Rd. 7, including on Thanksgiving Day. The “derby” shows drew crowds that saw the small primates riding atop dogs, to which the monkeys’ hands were bound.
Activists said they uncovered videos and photos of panicked-looking monkey “jockeys” biting and hitting the dogs and the dogs grimacing in pain.
Despite the abuse claims, this year’s fair will still feature live animals if the city signs off on the event.
According to Rydell, “there will be a robust agriculture show with education components [related to] Florida’s wildlife, as well as livestock to promote agriculture in the state of Florida.”
The fair, as planned, would feature “award-winning hens, turkeys, and things like that, just for educational purposes,” said Rydell, who is seeking approval of a permit for Bast to operate the fair.
Last year’s amusement fair also featured a livestock tent, but this year, event planners will be “doing something more robust,” Rydell told commissioners.
He disputed what he called the “insinuation” that last year’s event featured “a show act, a showman’s act involving animals…some sort of abuse.”
“I still don’t assert that that’s what happened last year, but we understand the concern of the community. We understand the media storm that came from it.”
Rydell said his client does not “condone anything like [an abusive act], and that’s not something we’re suggesting in any capacity” will be happening this year.
Commissioners at the CRA meeting seemed receptive to Rydell’s pitch for another fair, which would run from mid-November through early December.
Records show that the city would be paid at least $50,000 for the deal.
Speaking about the monkey and dog show, Margate Mayor Antonio Arserio said, “the fact that [Bast] listened to the residents and took it out, that weighs a lot with me on my decision.”
The fair bills itself as the Broward County Fair, but it is not connected to the long-running, defunct Broward County Youth Fair. That fair was a nonprofit chartered by the Florida Department of Agriculture in 1976, with tightly regulated animal displays and special state licensing.
The for-profit Margate fair, put on by Bast, received a cease and desist order last year to stop using the county fair name. But it continued to do so.
Animals were not the only fair-related concern at the CRA meeting.
Multiple residents and Margate commissioner Arlene Schwartz said the fair caused significant problems with parking and trash last year. Litter plagued the area, and parking was so problematic that the city had to take $500 off the monthly rent of nearby businesses to compensate them.
Several residents also spoke to express concerns over public safety at the fair.
The Spring Break version of the fair, held from March to April 2022, was shut down during one night of operation due to “chaos, disturbances, fights, and in the interest of public and officer safety” after a series of violent clashes between fairgoers, police records show.
Violence had been a problem at the event before.
At the November 2021 fair, a 91-year-old woman, Meredeth Bartels, was wounded when a stray bullet fired from the fairgrounds struck her, according to court records.
Brandon Craig, 40, a carnival worker at the fair, allegedly fired two shots during a dispute with another carnival worker, wounding Bartels in the process, police said.
Craig, of Royal Palm Beach, was charged with attempted felony murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, and battery, records show. He is awaiting trial.
Rydell said the fair plans to beef up its security this year by hiring a private security company and not relying solely on the city’s police force. He also said parking would be improved.
For the first time, alcohol sales could be permitted at the fair this year if commissioners deem it appropriate.
Several residents said they supported the fair’s permit approval but wanted the security and parking issues addressed.
Fair representatives must go before Margate commissioners several more times before any agreement is given final approval.
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