When Dottie Taylor saw cars packing the streets on gameday, she thought of another kind of herd.
Sweating in the midday sun, she held a sign that read "Beauty and the Beast." An American bison played the beauty and the Florida Park Service Director, Donald Forgione, was pegged for the role of the beast.
She and three other animal activists stood on the sidewalk on the corner of Archer Road and 34th Street on Saturday to protest for the safe treatment of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park's adult male bison, which are scheduled to be removed from the park this winter.
Residents of Gainesville and surrounding cities have hit the pavement and the Internet since word came out last year that park management was considering removing the bison, horses and cattle. Those rumors filtered into fact after a public meeting in December and a series of management plans sent out by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
As of now, the plan is to remove the adult male bison from the herd of about 60. The females and soon-to-be-sterilized yearling males will stay on the prairie as a non-reproducing herd of about 30.
The park's horses will also stay on the prairie for now, and the males in the herd of about 30 will be sterilized.
The park's cattle will stay at the park cattle ranch.
The activists' main concern is that the bison could be sold for slaughter.
According to the most recent management plan, the first choice of a new home for the bison is animal sanctuaries, but if none can be found, other unspecified recipients who pass animal safety screenings may be called in.
Taylor, clad in a tie-dye T-shirt, cat-eye sunglasses and a straw hat with pink flowers, explained the issue when drivers stuck their heads out of their windows to ask about her sign.
"They've been here longer than any of us," she said.
Nearby, Sharon Nataline held a sign that was about as wide as she is tall. It had the phone number for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The 60-year-old vegan has spent a good deal of her life protecting dogs from animal abusers.
She said she'd like to see the bison sterilized and left to roam. Even if they are sent to sanctuaries, she said, wild bison are known to die from the stress of roundups.
"Now they're part of the culture, part of the heritage," she said. "The bison certainly don't deserve to be slaughtered."
Sharon Nataline, 60, holds a sign on the corner of Archer Road and 34th Street to protest for the safe treatment of the bison at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.
