Former owner of dog found chained to pole ahead of Hurricane Milton arrested, to 'face the music,' DA says
The former owner of a distressed dog found tied to a fence near a freeway as Hurricane Milton headed toward Florida said he left the bull terrier as he was evacuating the state, authorities said.
Giovanny Aldama Garcia has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty, State Attorney Suzy Lopez said. He allegedly told investigators that he was driving to Georgia to escape the storm but left his dog, Jumbo, on the side of the road because he couldn’t find anyone to pick the dog up.
"Criminals face harsher penalties, as a matter of fact, during a state of emergency, which we were in last week, and we are in now," Lopez said in a news release. "They will face the music."
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The bull terrier, renamed Trooper in honor of his rescuer, was found abandoned by Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Orlando Morales during a rainy Oct. 9 morning off Interstate 75 near Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
"He’s an animal lover and father to a rescue dog himself," Lopez said.
The discovery was made as the storm was bearing down on the area before making landfall as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds later that night.
Trooper is now in foster care in the state capital of Tallahassee and will be put up for adoption. The Leon County Humane Society said it's received hundreds of inquiries about the dog.
At the time he was found, Trooper was standing in a large puddle of water and repeatedly growled as the trooper moved toward him.
"It's OK, buddy. It's OK," the trooper is heard saying as his body camera recorded the encounter. "I don't blame you. I don't blame you. It's OK, buddy."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initially promised that the owner would be held accountable.
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"I’m warning you, don’t do that. If you loot, you will be held accountable. If you’re doing things that violate the law, if you’re going to try to take advantage of vulnerable people, we’re going to throw the book at you," DeSantis said on Oct. 10. "We even had some jackass chain a dog to a pole. As the storm was coming, Florida Highway Patrol rescued the dog."
"We had somebody decide as Hurricane Milton approached that it would somehow be a good thing to take his dog and chain it to a post on the interstate," he said Tuesday. "We said at the time, ‘You don’t just tie up a dog and have them out there for a storm.'"
The humane society said Trooper's caretakers are still getting to know the dog and tending to him after he arrived at the shelter in an anxious state.
"He's incredibly stressed and still decompressing," the animal shelter said. "Abandoning a dog like this doesn't typically allow for an immediate bounce back to their happy selves. Most dogs when rescued take a few days to feel safe, a few weeks to come out of their shell, and a few months to become comfortable and fall into a routine."
"We have absolutely no idea what his life looked like before he was abandoned," the humane society explained. "We want to be sure that we know exactly what he needs before even considering adoption, so he'll be in foster care until we feel confident he's ready for the next phase of life, and that his future will be kind to him."
Fox News Digital's Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.