A Palm Beach County dog owner installed home security cameras before leaving town, and what she found while checking the footage remotely led to felony charges against a man in her home.

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, surveillance video captured two separate incidents on August 3 and August 4 showing a man engaging in illegal sexual activity involving the family's 10-year-old Labrador retriever. Investigators say the suspect later acknowledged, during questioning, that he was the person shown in the footage. He was arrested on August 6 and charged with two third-degree felony counts of sexual activities involving animals. The dog was examined by a veterinarian at Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control as part of the investigation.

Florida currently treats this crime as a third-degree felony, the same category used for many far less severe offenses. Advocates and researchers have long warned that abuse of animals can be linked to other forms of violence, including domestic and child abuse. Treating a case like this as a lesser charge doesn't just fail the animal involved, it can mean missing an early warning sign of danger to the people around the person responsible.

This case deserves the maximum sentence available under the current charges, and it shouldn't be the last time Florida reconsiders whether its animal sexual abuse laws go far enough. The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office decides how aggressively to pursue this prosecution, and the Florida Legislature has the power to strengthen the underlying law.

Sign the petition to demand the maximum sentence in this case and stronger Florida laws against sexual abuse of animals, before another case like this slips through as a minor charge.