JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Animal Care and Protective Services (ACPS) is stepping up its response to animal cruelty in Jacksonville, turning to the public for help, offering cash rewards, and enforcing new laws that bring tougher consequences for offenders.<\/p>\n
ACPS officials said recent cases, along with new state laws, are changing how animal cruelty is investigated and punished.<\/p>\n
The latest case involves a senior dog named Tristan, who was found alone in a park with severe injuries. Investigators later determined the dog died as a result of a deliberate act of violence.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo when we find the right person, they\u2019re held accountable now,\u201d said ACPS Director Michael Bricker.<\/p>\n According to ACPS, Tristan\u2019s injuries were extensive.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s we found out that Tristan\u2019s skull was actually crushed,\u201d Bricker said.<\/p>\n Tristan\u2019s case is now under investigation with assistance from the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office. ACPS said tips from the public could lead to a $3,000 cash reward through Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n While the investigation into Tristan\u2019s death is ongoing, ACPS is also reminding the public about two other animal cruelty cases first shared late last year: Miracle and Valor.<\/p>\n Miracle, a Great Dane, was found severely emaciated on the side of the road. That case prompted the largest reward ever offered by ACPS $8,000 and ultimately led to felony animal cruelty charges against Dawn Lipford.<\/p>\n Valor, a pit bull terrier, was discovered tied to a tree and shot multiple times in the San Marco area. ACPS said investigators have developed new leads in that case and forwarded them to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Bricker says ACPS has changed how it approaches animal cruelty investigations, particularly when it comes to community involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest changes we made is that we are now going to the public, and we\u2019re able to do that because we have additional staffing to receive those emails to get to those tips and then put those in action or investigating every single tip that we get,\u201d Bricker said.<\/p>\n ACPS also points to new state laws, including Dexter\u2019s Law, as a turning point in holding offenders accountable.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it\u2019s been for a long time that you do something to an animal, you get a slap on the wrist, but thanks to the new laws are being in place, like Dexter\u2019s law and the new animal cruelty laws, that\u2019s changing,\u201d Bricker said.<\/p>\n Dexter\u2019s Law established Florida\u2019s animal cruelty offender database, which now lists more than 2,000 people statewide, and strengthens penalties for animal abuse.<\/p>\n ACPS officials said they believe someone knows what happened in each of these cases and are urging anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Animal Care and Protective Services (ACPS) is stepping up its response to animal cruelty in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18751,344,347,28,348,116,67448,351,118,117,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-138274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-acps","tag-action-news-jax","tag-cbs47","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-animal-cruelty-case","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138274","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=138274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}