By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

September 9, 2014 -- The debate over pony rides and a petting zoo at the Main Street Farmers Market has been the subject of rival e-petitions and Internet chatter in recent months. The subject will head to the big stage Tuesday when Santa Monica City Council members will discuss a possible beginning of an end for the popular, but controversial, Sunday attractions.

Council members Gleam Davis and Ted Winterer late last week added a discussion item to the meeting agenda that calls for the City to issue a request for proposals “for children's-oriented activities at the ingress/egress of the Main Street Farmers Market that gives preference to partners in our Buy Local initiative and non-animal activities.”

Acceptable activities, according to the proposal, would include “painting, arts and crafts, gardening, cooking, food preparation and decoration.”

The agenda item further states, “If the bids do not meet with council's approval, council may reserve the entrance to the Main Street market for open space or dining.”

This potential RFP would disqualify Tawni's Ponies and Petting Farm from continuing its pony rides and petting zoo operation at the market. The company’s contract with the City expires next spring.

Some people have criticized the attractions because the animals are supposedly abused, which is a charge Tawni’s head Tawni Angel has denied. The criticism strengthened in late March when activist and former congressional candidate Marcy Winograd launched an e-petition calling for a shutdown.

“We call on the City of Santa Monica, known for its visionary and progressive policies, to shut down pony rides and petting zoos because these cruel and inhumane exhibits exploit animals for entertainment,” states the petition, which goes on to include various specific allegations.

As of Monday morning, the e-petition has attracted 1,314 “signatures,” ranging from people who give just a first name to local political heavyweights such as school board members Ben Allen and Oscar de la Torre as well as some council candidates.

Winograd also launched a website called freethepony.org, which features a video calling for an end to the animal attractions.

Tawni and her supporters are not standing idle. She started a rival e-petition to save the operation. As of Monday morning, it has attracted 853 “signatures.”

“This petition is in response to the recent attack on my personal life and business by an individual who promotes untruthful, slanderous accusations in her ‘campaign’ to shut down the children's pony ride and petting farm in Santa Monica,” Tawni wrote on the petition page.

Whether the animals included in the attractions are actually abused is probably a matter of opinion, but actual facts can help form this opinion. City officials have investigated, and they say the abuse is not happening.

“We have sent animal control to check out these allegations,” Farmers Market Supervisor Laura Avery told The Lookout in July. “We had veterinarians and multiple experts look at the animals and they didn’t find any evidence of abuse.”

She continued, “The company is fully licensed and has been in operation for over ten years. The animals are fed, given water and cared for by the operator, who also heads an animal rescue and is a lifelong animal lover.”

Both sides of the debate are expected to bring vocal supporters to the council meeting. They will address the City leaders prior to the vote on a proposal that could mark the beginning of the end for the animal attractions.