Florida Senate - 2025                              CS for SB 150
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Criminal Justice; and Senator Gaetz
       
       
       
       
       
       591-01944-25                                           2025150c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to abandoning restrained animals
    3         during natural disasters; providing a short title;
    4         amending s. 828.13, F.S.; defining terms; prohibiting
    5         the abandonment of an animal that is restrained
    6         outside during a natural disaster; providing criminal
    7         penalties; providing an effective date.
    8          
    9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   10  
   11         Section 1. This act may be cited as “Trooper’s Law.”
   12         Section 2. Section 828.13, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   13  read:
   14         828.13 Confinement of animals without sufficient food,
   15  water, or exercise; abandonment of animals.—
   16         (1) As used in this section:
   17         (a) “Abandon” means to forsake an animal entirely or to
   18  neglect or refuse to provide or perform the legal obligations
   19  for care and support of an animal by its owner.
   20         (b) “Natural disaster” means a situation in which a
   21  hurricane, tropical storm, or tornado warning has been issued
   22  for a municipality or a county by the National Weather Service,
   23  or in which a municipality or county is under a mandatory or
   24  voluntary evacuation order.
   25         (c) “Owner” includes any owner, custodian, or other person
   26  in charge of an animal.
   27         (d) “Restraint” means a chain, rope, tether, leash, cable,
   28  or other device that attaches an animal to a stationary object
   29  or trolley system.
   30         (2) A person who Whoever:
   31         (a) Impounds or confines any animal in any place and fails
   32  to supply the animal during such confinement with a sufficient
   33  quantity of good and wholesome food and water,
   34         (b) Keeps any animals in any enclosure without wholesome
   35  exercise and change of air, or
   36         (c) Abandons to die any animal that is maimed, sick,
   37  infirm, or diseased,
   38  
   39  commits is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree,
   40  punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more
   41  than $5,000, or by both imprisonment and a fine.
   42         (3) A Any person who is the owner or possessor, or has
   43  charge or custody, of any animal who abandons such animal to
   44  suffer injury or malnutrition or abandons any animal in a
   45  street, road, or public place without providing for the care,
   46  sustenance, protection, and shelter of such animal commits is
   47  guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as
   48  provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or
   49  by both imprisonment and a fine.
   50         (4) A person who abandons an animal by using a restraint on
   51  the animal and leaving that animal restrained outside during a
   52  natural disaster commits a felony of the third degree,
   53  punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or by a fine of not more
   54  than $10,000, or both.
   55         Section 3. This act shall take effect October 1, 2025.