{"id":104082,"date":"2026-01-03T05:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/104082\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T05:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:35:08","slug":"new-florida-law-creates-animal-cruelty-offender-database","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/104082\/","title":{"rendered":"New Florida law creates animal cruelty offender database"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Animal shelters across South Florida say a new law that took effect this week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/new-florida-laws-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">will help protect pets and hold offenders accountable<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2025\/255\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dexter&#8217;s Law<\/a>,&#8221; named for a dog adopted from a shelter and killed just days later in 2024, requires the state to maintain a public database of people convicted of or who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.<\/p>\n<p>The database, now live on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website, lists 1,668 names and will be updated monthly with information from local agencies.<\/p>\n<p>Animal Care Services in Broward County says the tool will be used as part of its adoption process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We see this as a win for our residents, a win for our pets, and a win for the people who love them,&#8221; said Zachary Rinkins, spokesperson for Broward County Animal Care. &#8220;It gives our community another tool to responsibly vet potential adopters and fosters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/web.fdle.state.fl.us\/dexter\/about.jsf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">database<\/a> is open to the public and can be accessed through the FDLE website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Animal shelters across South Florida say a new law that took effect this week will help protect pets&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,807],"class_list":["post-104082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104082","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=104082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}