The dogs, 10 Shiba Inu puppies and two adult dogs, were found on the morning of Friday, Dec. 19. One of the puppies died Tuesday with signs of abuse.<\/p>\n
LARGO, Fla. \u2014 Two people were arrested weeks after 12 dogs were dumped at a Largo park, leading to one puppy’s death.<\/a><\/p>\n Largo police confirmed that Mary Anne Gamble and Fred Gamble are each facing 12 counts of animal cruelty, with more charges possible in the future.<\/p>\n Police also said they found five other dogs buried in the Gambles’ backyard.<\/p>\n The abandoned dogs were found<\/a> on the morning of Friday, Dec. 19, at Taylor Park. Officials said nine Shiba Inu puppies were in a plastic storage bin while the two adult dogs were roaming nearby. A tenth puppy, later named Frosty, was found two days later in worse condition than the others.<\/p>\n Despite days of critical care and life-saving efforts, Frosty died on Tuesday night.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n All 12 dogs tested positive for parvo,<\/a> a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus, but Frosty\u2019s injuries went far beyond illness.<\/p>\n According to Pawlicious Poochie Pet Rescue founder Jaime McKnight, Frosty had a broken leg and a dislocated jaw, and a necropsy revealed internal injuries \u2014 all consistent with abuse. She said after learning of the puppy’s internal injuries, there is no way he could have survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just carried him around, talked to him, and he just peacefully passed away in my arms,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cHe left here knowing love, for sure, but it\u2019s devastating that we lost him.”<\/p>\n While Frosty died, rescuers say the remaining 11 dogs \u2014 nine puppies and their two mothers \u2014 are expected to make a full recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re happy, bouncy little puppies, the moms are doing great,\u201d McKnight said.<\/p>\n Frosty\u2019s death became a key part of the criminal investigation into who abandoned the dogs at the park, and McKnight believes the evidence of physical trauma could increase the severity of potential charges.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven his death and the evidence we have of the physical trauma he endured, which caused his death, that definitely adds intensity to the case and the charges for sure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
These arrests come as Florida launched a new statewide animal abuse registry<\/a> on New Year’s Day as part of Dexter’s Law,<\/a> named after a dog that was decapitated in Pinellas County.<\/p>\n The database allows shelters, rescues and the public to identify people charged with or convicted of animal cruelty in Florida. The registry builds on tougher penalties for aggravated animal cruelty that are already in place, including increased sentencing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dogs, 10 Shiba Inu puppies and two adult dogs, were found on the morning of Friday, Dec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-103399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103399","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=103399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDexter’s Law changes Florida animal abuse penalties <\/p>\n