Ocala residents and elected officials spoke in favor of a state bill Thursday that would create an online database of people convicted on animal abuse charges in Florida. The bill is named after a dog that a St. Petersburg man adopted then decapitated a few days later, and was inspired by a similar ordinance passed by Marion County commissioners.
Members of the Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice unanimously approved Senate Bill 494, or “Dexter’s Law,” Thursday morning. Before the vote, Marion County Commissioner Matthew McClain spoke to committee members about “Molly’s Law,” which the commission passed in 2016, and created a similar database for convicted animal abusers in the county.
“Dexter’s Law” is named after a 4-year-old bulldog mix. Domingo Rodriguez, 66, adopted Dexter from Pinellas County Animal Services four days before killing him on May 14, according to Pinellas County deputies. He was found guilty of decapitating the dog, putting his body in a plastic bag and throwing him into the beach at Fort De Soto Park in May 2024.
State Senator Thomas Leeks, who introduced the bill, said it would compile information already publicly available onto one website. The database would make it easier for animal services workers to vet potential adopters, he said.
Marion County Commissioner Matthew McClain explained the backstory of a similar policy passed by the commission called “Molly’s Law.” It was named after an American boxer mix that was stabbed and beaten with a baseball bat in Ocala in 2014.
The ordinance, which was adopted by the county commission in 2016, created a database of people convicted of animal abuse in Marion County. Several other counties, including Miami-Dade, Lee, and Volusia counties, have since followed Marion County’s example and created their own databases.
“Today, Molly’s Law stands as a model of what a community can do when it refuses to stay silent in the face of cruelty,” McClain said.
Lilly Baron, the Ocala resident who adopted Molly after she was taken from her former owner, also spoke in favor of the bill at the committee meeting. She said the database would make it much easier for shelter employees to find out if someone has been charged with animal abuse.
“We have to check all 11 counties to see if that person is on those animal abuse registries,” Baron said. “Having the statewide animal abuse database would make it easier for everyone in our industry.”
Baron is the president of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Ocala. She wrote on her organization’s Facebook page that she has been trying to take Molly’s Law statewide for seven years.
“I think we need stronger laws, first and foremost against animal abuse,” said Carla Spina, who adopted a bull-terrier that was abandoned by its former owner in Tampa and tied to a fence the day of Hurricane Milton.
That dog, renamed Trooper in honor of the Florida Highway Patrol trooper who found him before the Category 5 hurricane hit, is the inspiration for another animal abuse-related law called “Trooper’s Law.” The bill would give criminal penalties for abandoning animals outdoors during natural disasters.
“We want more than that, we don’t want cats, or dogs, or any animal to be abused at all,” Spina said. She said that the database is a good idea, but wants to make sure that animal abusers are convicted.
Senator Blaise Ingoglia, while in favor of the bill, said he wants to see it expanded. He said that he would like to expand the database to people convicted in states beyond Florida, and allow adoption agencies to bar people on the list from adopting animals without court approval.
“If we can prevent other animals from being abused by known abusers that have been adjudicated in a court system, I think we’d be better off,” Ingoglia said.
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