Seminole County moves to launch registry of those who abuse animals

After recent cases of people arrested for mistreating animals — including an Altamonte Springs woman charged last month with neglecting and starving scores of dogs and cats — Seminole commissioners on Tuesday agreed to move forward with launching an abuse registry on the county’s website.

The registry would list online the names of individuals who have been criminally convicted within the past two decades of animal abuse. This will allow animal rescue organizations, adoption agencies and others to look up a person before selling them or turning over a dog, cat or other animal.

“This is a good step,” Commissioner Jay Zembower said. “But I want to make sure that the public understands that this is not going to eliminate all animal abuses. It’s going to be a beginning to start a baseline so we can prevent as much as we possibly can.”

County officials said they were motivated to start the database after a proposed Florida law to establish a statewide animal abuse registry was not enacted by the Legislature this year.

To kick off the registry in the coming months, the county’s Clerk of the Circuit Court office will provide Seminole’s animal services division every month a list of convicted individuals to add to the database.

There are currently 15 animal cruelty cases in Seminole County courts, officials said.

Linda Radun of Altamonte Springs praised the registry and noted that a neighbor was recently arrested for mistreating and starving dogs and other animals.

“Maybe if you saw what I’ve seen, you might say we definitely need to have a database so that these criminals can’t own a dog again,” she said. “And hopefully, other counties will check Seminole County’s database once it’s up and running. … And hopefully, eventually, there will be a statewide database.”

On Sept. 20, Tonya Grose was arrested on cruelty charges after police officers rescued dozens of scarred, malnourished and emaciated animals from her property on Ballard Street in Altamonte Springs. She has since bonded out of the Seminole County Jail after posting a $10,000 bail. Grose has pleaded not guilty.

Nearly 60 animals — including 26 dogs and 32 cats — from Grose’s property were turned over to Seminole’s animal services division to be treated.

On Tuesday, county officials began offering for adoption many of the animals seized in that case.

In what county officials called one of the worst cases of animal abuse they have ever seen, Seminole deputy sheriffs last November arrested and charged Brandon Blake with confining dozens of dogs — including Rottweilers, pit bulls and German shepherds — without sufficient water or food at a home on East 20th Street near Sanford.

The dogs were treated for infected puncture wounds, abrasions, inflammation and malnourishment, officials said.

Blake also was charged with animal cruelty after deputies found four dead dogs on the property. Blake, a longtime dog breeder and trainer, has pleaded not guilty.

But commissioners and county staff acknowledged that the county’s new animal cruelty registry would likely not be able to list individuals who were convicted of animal abuse in another county or other state.

“As much as I would like to see a full and complete database — statewide, nationwide — available for this, we are really just scratching the surface as best we can,” Commissioner Lee Constantine said.

mcomas@orlandosentinel.com