TAMPA, Fla. — A statewide animal cruelty database is set to launch today. 

It’s the newest phase of Dexter’s Law, named after a 4-year-old black and white bulldog mix. He was adopted from Pinellas County Animal Services and then, days later, found brutally killed in Fort De Soto Park.

Dexter’s Law allows judges to increase penalties in animal cruelty cases. That part went into effect back in July. But today, the part of the law requiring the state to create and maintain a public database of abusers goes into effect. 

What You Need To Know

The State of Florida is launching an animal cruelty database on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s website today as part of Dexter’s Law

Dexter’s Law went into effect in July, allowing judges to increase penalties in animal cruelty cases

Those who have either been found guilty, pleaded guilty or no contest to animal cruelty charges will be listed in the database

If your name is placed in the database, it will stay there for ten years- with re-offenders placed back in the databse for another ten years

Those people who have either been found guilty, pleaded guilty or no contest to animal cruelty charges will be listed in the database. This database will take public records and pull them onto the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s website.

It’s designed to help shelters and pet rescues that screen applicants before the adoption process is complete. It will also help pet owners looking to re-home their pets and even law enforcement and investigators as they work cases.

Debbie Darino is the founder of Dexter’s Law along with Ponce Animal Foundation. She says she hopes it will add better protections for animals.

“I’m hoping that the animal shelters, the rescues, law enforcement, animal control- they’re the first people on the front line when it comes to getting an animal adopt it out,” said Darino. “Then your average person wanting to rehome their pet, for whatever reason, they can just go look in the database.”

And Darino says a few countys have a registry of animal abusers. But some of those, she says, were having issues keeping track of those on the list that may have moved to a different state. This database, she says, will help troubleshoot those issues.

If your name is placed in the database, it will stay there for ten years. But if you re-offend at some point, your name will go back into that databse for another ten years.

Darino says she’s also working on making Dexter’s Law a federal law.