Orange decides not to start its own animal-abuse registry
The Orange County Commission decided Tuesday it is going to wait for a state law to create an animal-abuse registry instead of developing its own.
The county had been looking into ways of preventing people convicted of animal abuse from ever adopting pets again.
With an average of 55 animals a day coming into the Orange County shelter on Conroy Road, the sheer number of adoptions meant that someone’s background might not be noticed and adoptions to abusers could unknowingly happen.
County staff studied the pros and cons of two bills: a state House bill, now in subcommittee, that would create a statewide database and registry for animal abusers beginning in 2018, and a local Marion County bill called “Molly’s Law” that created a countywide registry in that county about 90 miles north of Orlando.
Deputy County Administrator George Ralls said the Marion law, which includes fine of $500 for shelters or breeders if they violate the law by allowing an abuser to adopt a second time, had some possible issues with enforcement and was limited by being restricted to the county.
The state House bill, which had moved out of two subcommittees and was being heard by the Criminal Justice subcommittee, “has a lot of support, and I do see this as the best option, honestly.”
If approved, the statewide measure would take effect Jan. 1.
The County Commission unanimously approved supporting the state bill.
Ralls said staff looked into ways of protecting animals from being adopted by abusers in the meantime, but found that one method — linking to the clerk of courts site to allow shelters and breeders to search for a potential adoptee’s name in their records — wasn’t foolproof.
Searches could only be done by name, he said, and people often have different variations of their names, including hyphenated and compound names.
He suggested requesting that the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s office provide the county with an ongoing list of all animalabuse convictions in the meantime.