{"id":102260,"date":"2026-01-01T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102260\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T14:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:00:08","slug":"tougher-punishment-for-animal-abuse-among-100-new-laws-enacted-in-florida-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102260\/","title":{"rendered":"Tougher punishment for animal abuse among 100 new laws enacted in Florida \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 More than 100 new laws are in effect in Florida as of Thursday morning, including Dexter\u2019s Law, which implements tougher punishments for animal cruelty.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation in May 2023 following extensive advocacy.<\/p>\n

Debbie Darino, a resident of Volusia County, championed Dexter\u2019s Law and dedicated more than a year to advocate for the passage. <\/p>\n

Her efforts included helping to write the legislation and rallying support from lawmakers to back the bill.<\/p>\n

The law is named after Dexter, a bulldog found beheaded at Fort Desoto Park. <\/p>\n

His adoptive owner, Domingo Rodriguez, was convicted for the gruesome act. <\/p>\n

Darino was moved to action after hearing Dexter\u2019s story, which highlighted the need for more severe consequences for animal abusers.<\/p>\n

See our full report in the video above.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 More than 100 new laws are in effect in Florida as of Thursday morning, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1060,2777,7376,53389,53392,53395,53397,53390,53396,13139,5700,28,30,29,53394,6281,10273,53391,634,115,53393,45479,11279,1045,5084],"class_list":["post-102260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-channel_9","tag-channel_nine","tag-debbie","tag-debbie_derino","tag-debbie_derio","tag-debbie_dorino","tag-dexter","tag-dexters_law","tag-domingo_rodriguez","tag-eyewitness_news","tag-fdle","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fort_desoto_park","tag-governor","tag-hugh_mccray","tag-hugh_mccraye","tag-local","tag-news","tag-pinellas_county","tag-ron_desantiss","tag-services","tag-video","tag-volusia_county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}