{"id":57359,"date":"2025-08-21T19:41:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57359"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:41:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T23:41:34","slug":"bad-dog-sign-at-polk-county-shelter-sparks-anger-from-animal-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/21\/bad-dog-sign-at-polk-county-shelter-sparks-anger-from-animal-advocates\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bad Dog\u2019 sign at Polk County shelter sparks anger from animal advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office cited a 1949 law as its reason for posting the sign<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new sign outside Polk County Animal Control has animal advocates worried it could cost countless dogs their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The sign, prominently posted on the shelter\u2019s front gate, reads simply: \u201cWARNING BAD DOG.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unavoidable,\u201d said Rudie Ashley, shelter manager at the Lakeland-based Polk County Bully Project, which rescues many of the dogs that pass through county animal control. \u201cPeople are going to get the wrong impression of dogs and stop going there to adopt them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley says labeling all dogs as \u201cbad\u201d is misleading. She pointed to Trinity, a three-legged dog from the county shelter who\u2019s now in her nonprofit\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe likes to give lots of kisses and is by no means a bad dog,\u201d Ashley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another rescue, a puppy named Limerick, is equally affectionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concern comes as Polk County Animal Control faces ongoing scrutiny over its operations. According to University of Florida records, the county\u2019s \u201cLive Outcome Rate\u201d in 2024 was 58 percent, which means 42 percent of animals taken in did not make it out alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further records show 401 animals died while in the county\u2019s care last year from causes other than euthanasia, and 564 escaped the shelter, most of them cats. In a previous report, it was documented a wide range of concerns voiced by an anonymous former employee and other animal advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Ashley is okay with the idea of a sign, she believes wording matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the verbiage that needs to change. \u2018Beware of Dog.\u2019 \u2018Caution Dogs Here.\u2019 Something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to questions about the sign, a spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, which runs the shelter, pointed to a 1949 Florida law<\/a> that shields dog owners from liability if a \u201cBad Dog\u201d sign is displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newer law addressing dangerous dogs<\/a> was passed and approved by the governor this year. Sponsored by Rep. Judson Sapp (R-Clay County), it seeks to protect consumers from dogs with violent histories. It requires county shelters to \u201cpost signage on the dog’s enclosure to inform potential adopters that the dog has been declared dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a phone call, Rep. Sapp said Polk County\u2019s use of the warning sign doesn\u2019t fit with the intent of his law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new dangerous dogs law was written with the intent to label specific dogs as dangerous so that purchasers or adopters are aware of the risk. We did not intend for broad notification, but very targeted notification on dogs deemed dangerous after due process,\u201d Rep. Sapp later wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are aiming to protect Floridians from dogs who are known to be dangerous and hold owners of those dangerous dogs accountable,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates like Ashley fear the broad warning could make adoption rates even worse in a county already struggling to save animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt hurts the cause,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office cited a 1949 law as its reason for posting the sign A new sign outside Polk County Animal Control has animal advocates worried it could… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiXHUyMDE4QmFkIERvZ1x1MjAxOSBzaWduIGF0IFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IHNoZWx0ZXIgc3BhcmtzIGFuZ2VyIGZyb20gYW5pbWFsIGFkdm9jYXRlcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.6Jim7xjII7wrXnCDN9c3idAnDKitpOOv9tVSsoNLKcYMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57360,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-2-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[12011],"class_list":["post-57359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bad-dog-sign-at-polk-county-shelter-sparks-anger-from-animal-advocates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57361,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57359\/revisions\/57361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}