Staff Reports
Leaving animals to die in a natural disaster is a horrific thing, and a law likely to signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis puts harsher penalties in place for that atrocity.
Floridians were shocked last year by the story of a dog that would come to be known as Trooper, who was tied to a pole as Hurricane Milton approached last year and rescued by a member of the state Highway Patrol.
“We had somebody decide, as Hurricane Milton approached, that it would somehow be a good thing to take his dog and chain it to a post on the interstate,” DeSantis told reporters at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The owner, a Ruskin man named Giovanny Aldama Garcia, was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals last year after he left the dog to drown in floodwaters, shocking the conscience of Floridians and people around the nation.
“I’m proud to announce that the authorities have identified the dog’s former owners and State Attorney Suzy Lopez is now pursuing animal cruelty charges against the individual, so we said you’d be held accountable and you will be held accountable,” DeSantis added at the same event.
At that time, Lopez urged the addition of the crime to the enhanced penalty list during states of emergency, and that may come to pass soon, as the Governor was sent the bill Friday.
SB 150, filed by Sen. Don Gaetz, holds that a “person who during a state of emergency … in an area included in the state of emergency” commits “animal cruelty … commits a felony of the third degree.”
The legislation has received support from outside groups including the Florida Smart Justice Alliance, the Humane Society of the United States and Florida Animal Control Association.
The dog, who was renamed Trooper after the person who saved him, has since been adopted and found a new home. The dog has been battling health issues in recent months according to media reports.
