A Florida man has been arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty after he allegedly left his dog tied to a fence ahead of Hurricane Milton‘s landfall in the state last week.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced the charges on Tuesday.
The authority said the dog, now known as “Trooper,” was abandoned along Interstate 75 in Tampa as residents were evacuating ahead of the hurricane. By the time Trooper was discovered by a highway patrol agent who received a tip, the dog was trapped “in flood waters up to his chest.”
Florida’s Highway Patrol Troop shared bodycam video of the dog to X on Oct. 9. In the footage, Trooper’s white head is seen poking from behind a grassy hill near the highway.
As he approaches, the officer can be heard reassuring the dog, who barks and growls from his spot standing in the deep puddle.
An affidavit for the incident said tying the dog to the fence put him in “extreme danger and risk of death” and “caused excessive unnecessary infliction of pain and suffering to the dog.”
State troopers launched an investigation to determine who abandoned the dog by the roadside.
Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Fla., was subsequently arrested and charged with felony aggravated animal cruelty on Monday. He told police he abandoned his dog, originally named Jumbo, while he was travelling to Georgia because he couldn’t find accommodation for his pet.
Garcia could face up to five years in prison if convicted. He has not commented publicly on the incident or his arrest.
According to jail records, Garcia was released Tuesday on US$2,500 (about C$3,400) cash bond.
The affidavit alleges Garcia travelled to the Hillsborough County Animal Shelter two days after Hurricane Milton’s landfall. He reportedly showed a shelter clerk some photos as proof that he owned Trooper.
Trooper was not at the shelter, but was instead being housed at the Leon County Animal Shelter. When a Leon County shelter employee contacted Garcia, he allegedly said he would “surrender ownership” of the dog if Trooper would instead be paired with a loving foster family.
In a statement to Facebook, the Leon County Animal Shelter said Trooper was sent to “a wonderful family who has breed experience.”
“In this home he will continue to decompress and enjoy all the good things in life,” the organization wrote. “His foster parents will learn more about him and have his best interests at heart.”
The investigation is ongoing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said Trooper was adopted by a family in Tallahassee.
“We said at the time, you don’t just tie up a dog and have them out there for a storm, totally unacceptable, and we’re going to hold you accountable,” DeSantis said during a news conference. “We said you’d be held accountable, and you will be held accountable.”
Hurricane Milton landed in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Oct. 9 and left a trail of destruction across a wide swath of the peninsula. The hurricane smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
At least 24 people have died as a result of the storm.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell last week said Milton was not as destructive as officials had feared, but still caused “significant damage to a level that Floridians have not seen from tornadoes.”
— With files from the Associated Press