Florida Senate - 2025                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 150
       
       
       
       
       
       
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                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  02/11/2025           .                                
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       The Committee on Criminal Justice (Gaetz) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. This act may be cited as “Trooper’s Law.”
    6         Section 2. Section 828.13, Florida Statutes, is amended to
    7  read:
    8         828.13 Confinement of animals without sufficient food,
    9  water, or exercise; abandonment of animals.—
   10         (1) As used in this section:
   11         (a) “Abandon” means to forsake an animal entirely or to
   12  neglect or refuse to provide or perform the legal obligations
   13  for care and support of an animal by its owner.
   14         (b) “Natural disaster” means a situation in which a
   15  hurricane, tropical storm, or tornado warning has been issued
   16  for a municipality or a county by the National Weather Service,
   17  or in which a municipality or county is under a mandatory or
   18  voluntary evacuation order.
   19         (c) “Owner” includes any owner, custodian, or other person
   20  in charge of an animal.
   21         (d) “Restraint” means a chain, rope, tether, leash, cable,
   22  or other device that attaches an animal to a stationary object
   23  or trolley system.
   24         (2) A person who Whoever:
   25         (a) Impounds or confines any animal in any place and fails
   26  to supply the animal during such confinement with a sufficient
   27  quantity of good and wholesome food and water,
   28         (b) Keeps any animals in any enclosure without wholesome
   29  exercise and change of air, or
   30         (c) Abandons to die any animal that is maimed, sick,
   31  infirm, or diseased,
   32  
   33  commits is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree,
   34  punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more
   35  than $5,000, or by both imprisonment and a fine.
   36         (3) A Any person who is the owner or possessor, or has
   37  charge or custody, of any animal who abandons such animal to
   38  suffer injury or malnutrition or abandons any animal in a
   39  street, road, or public place without providing for the care,
   40  sustenance, protection, and shelter of such animal commits is
   41  guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as
   42  provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or
   43  by both imprisonment and a fine.
   44         (4) A person who abandons an animal by using a restraint on
   45  the animal and leaving that animal restrained outside during a
   46  natural disaster commits a felony of the third degree,
   47  punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more
   48  than $10,000, or both.
   49         Section 3. This act shall take effect October 1, 2025.
   50  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   51  And the title is amended as follows:
   52         Delete everything before the enacting clause
   53  and insert:
   54                        A bill to be entitled                      
   55         An act relating to abandoning restrained animals
   56         during natural disasters; providing a short title;
   57         amending s. 828.13, F.S.; defining terms; prohibiting
   58         abandoning an animal that is restrained outside during
   59         a natural disaster; providing criminal penalties;
   60         providing an effective date.