Dexter's Law is an Adoption Resource for all of Florida.

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]I'm in Florida.

[00:00:01]And here in Florida, we have a law called Dexter's Law.

[00:00:05]And it includes a database for abusers of animals.

[00:00:12]If you've ever been from misdemeanor all the way up to felony, if you've ever been convicted of a crime involving animal, you're on this database. It's accessible to anybody.

[00:00:23]And in theory, if you're rehoming your dog on Facebook, if you're a shelter or a rescue or any any one of those things, you can use this database to determine if somebody's ever been convicted of a crime. You can also look up mugshots. You can There's a million different ways to check to see if someone's an appropriate adopter.

[00:00:45]At the very bare minimum, that is that should be being done.

[00:00:51]Okay, this is my opinion now. I'm going to take some [ __ ] for it, I'm sure.

[00:00:54]But at the very bare minimum, we should be checking that database.

[00:01:00]A local organization is doing yet another fee-waived same-day adoption event, in which they are not checking any of that stuff. They're not doing background checks, they're not doing landlord or HOA checks. They're basically eliminating all barriers to adoption using the Best Friends model, which is have a meaningful conversation with the person wanting to adopt, and that's how you determine if they're a good adopter.

[00:01:28][ __ ] That is [ __ ] If I'm an animal abuser, I'm not going to tell you that in your meaningful conversation. But boy, if you look at that database, you can sure tell.

[00:01:39]We were told the other day that our outcomes as far as adoptions are not high enough because we have barriers to adoption.

[00:01:52]Because we check the database.

[00:01:54]We do a background check. We check landlord and HOAs to make sure that there's no breed and weight restrictions. We do all those things.

[00:02:02]We are creating barriers to adoption and we should rethink our policies.

[00:02:09]We don't care about your feelings about our adoption policies because we are concerned about the animals, where they end up.

[00:02:19]And that's not something that's negotiable.