(Beth Clifton collage)
“Breed-neutral” new law perpetuates “one free bite” loophole
TALLAHASSEE, Florida––Florida governor Ron DeSantis on May 21, 2025 signed into law the “Pam Rock Act,” authored by Republican state representatives Bobby Payne and Mike Beltran.
Named for 2022 pit bull victim Pamela Jane Rock, the “Pam Rock Act” is meant to undo some of the damage that DeSantis, also a Republican, earlier did on behalf of pit bull advocates, including Jupiter, Florida resident Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of U.S. president Donald Trump.
(Beth Clifton collage)
DiSantis endorsed repeal of Miami-Dade pit bull ban
DiSantis on September 28, 2023 endorsed into law a pair of “Authorization of Restrictions Concerning Dogs” laws that repealed a Miami-Dade County ban on possession of pit bulls in effect since 1989, but not enforced to the letter in at least two decades.
The “Authorization of Restrictions Concerning Dogs” laws also prohibited all Florida cities and counties from enforcing breed-specific ordinances, including to exclude pit bulls from public housing.
The “Authorization of Restrictions Concerning Dogs” laws had almost immediate fatal consequences.
Alexander Andres Torres.
(Facebook photo)
Alexander Torres was at least fifth victim of non-enforcement
Alexander Andres Torres, 29, of Kendall, Florida, in Miami-Dade County, was killed by his own pit bull on or about December 18, 2023.
Torres had kept the pit bull since 2021, in evident violation of the intent of the former Miami-Dade County ban on possession of pit bulls. Torres was at least the fifth pit bull fatality attributable to non-enforcement of the Miami-Dade County pit bull ban since 2014.
(See Repeal of Miami-Dade pit bull ban brings 1st fatality in only 78 days.)
The “Pam Rock Act,” ironically, might not have saved Pam Rock herself, since most of it is in effect a “one free bite” law.
(See Flanders v. Goodfellow: New York dog bite victims get 2/3rds cup of justice.)
Pamela Jane Rock & three of the pit bulls who killed her. (Facebook photos)
The Pam Rock case
A U.S. Postal Service delivery driver, Rock, 62, of Melrose, Florida, was fatally mauled by five pit bulls after her delivery vehicle broke down on August 21, 2022 along Walker Drive in Interlachen, Florida. This obliged Rock to deliver the local mail on foot.
The pit bulls’ owner was not criminally charged, even though the owner knew the pit bulls were dangerous, because he had twice unsuccessfully attempted to surrender them to the Putnam County Animal Shelter, the Florida State Attorney’s Office explained to media.
Detailed Pam Rock’s brother Tom Rock in a June 30, 2023 op-ed column for Newsweek, “Putnam County Sheriff’s Department failed to notify Animal Control or follow up on a seriously injured victim—200 stitches—attacked six months before Pam’s death by the same dogs who killed her.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“No kill” shelter twice refused to accept the pit bulls for euthanasia
This prompted the owner’s first attempt to surrender the pit bulls for euthanasia.
His request was refused by the Putnam County Animal Shelter, apparently because of the lack of a record confirming the attack.
The owner tried again to surrender the pit bulls for euthanasia just ten days before Pam Rock was killed.
“Putnam County Animal Shelter is a ‘no-kill’ facility,” continued Tom Rock. “Animal Control is therefore reluctant to take in dangerous dogs. Their facility was ‘too full’ for more than one year. So the dogs who killed our sister, already demonstrated to be dangerous, were knowingly allowed to roam free.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
What the “Pam Rock Act” does
The “Pam Rock Act,” explained WJXT digital content producer Kendra Mazeke, defines a “dangerous dog” as one who “seriously injures a person. It requires owners to keep these dogs ‘securely confined.’”
This might have saved Pam Rock, but only if the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department had reported the first attack to Animal Control, thereby creating a “dangerous dog” record.
The “Pam Rock Act,” Mazeke continued, also will “Create a statewide registry of dangerous dogs; require owners of dangerous dogs to carry $100,000 in liability insurance; increase penalties for owners whose dogs attack; enforce stricter confinement rules for all dogs; allow authorities to hold dogs during investigations; and permit humane euthanasia for dogs responsible for severe injuries.
(Beth Clifton collage)
What “breed-neutral” means
“According to the bill sponsors,” Mazeke added, “this act is ‘breed neutral,’ meaning it focuses on making all dog owners accountable for their pet’s behavior regardless of their breed.”
But being “breed neutral” also means that the “Pam Rock Act” does little or nothing to prevent first attacks.
If pit bull owners’ statements are to be trusted, approximately half of all fatal and/or disfiguring pit bull attacks are the first known violent incidents involving the dogs. This includes more than 60% of all human deaths from dog attacks and more than 70% of all dog attack disfigurements since ANIMALS 24-7 began logging fatal and/or disfiguring dog attacks in 1982.
Florida dog attack civil liability law, incidentally, rejects the “one free bite” approach in favor of “strict liability,” meaning that a dog owner is liable for any damage his or her dog does, regardless of whether the dog has previously demonstrated dangerous behavior.
Kent Recklein. (GoFundMe photo)
Two car & motorcycle buffs killed by their own pit bulls
Elsewhere around the U.S., the 2025 dog attack fatality count on May 20 rose to 31 confirmed, 25 by pit bull, with two more fatalities by pit bull possible but not yet confirmed as dog attack deaths.
The two most recent victims were Kent P. Recklein, 67, of Caseyville, Illinois, and Richard L. Dambrowski, 46, of Riga, New York.
Caseyville police chief Woodrow Hall told Robert Townsend and Lupita Villarreal of KSDK television news in St. Louis, Missouri that Recklein died at his home.
“Neighbors said three pit bulls lived at the home,” Townsend and Villarreal recounted. “Two of the dogs were fighting in the home’s backyard when a man and his son-in-law tried to break them up, neighbors said.
Hall indicated that all three pit bulls were involved.
“St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. identified the victim,” Townsend and Villarreal said.
(Beth Clifton photo)
“Favorite place was a garage”
Recklein was pronounced dead within 15 minutes of police receiving the emergency call.
An obituary posted by the Kassly-Meredith Funeral Home in Collinsville, Illinois, described Recklein as “a car and motorcycle enthusiast whose favorite place was a garage.”
Recklein had that, as well as pit bulls, in common with Dambrowski, killed by his own pit bull about six hours later at his home.
Reported Victoria E. Freile for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Dambrowski suffered “’significant physical trauma’” to his face and neck from the encounter, which occurred inside the house,” according to sheriff’s spokesperson deputy Brendan Hurley.
Richard Dambrowski. (Facebook photo)
“A little bit monster”
Added Freile, “Dambrowski was pronounced dead at the scene, Hurley said. The Humane Society of Greater Rochester’s humane law enforcement team responded to the home and euthanized the dog, an American pit bull terrier, Hurley said.”
Dambrowski in a September 27, 2023 Facebook posting described the pit bull who killed him, at least the third pit bull he had owned, as “A little bit monster, mostly just determined and physically very strong, so can be a handful, but what he [is] supposed to be.”
Posted the Lake Alice Mud Bogs “mudding” car club, “Rich was a very well known photographer for many New York state mud bog events and was a member of Lake Alice’s team for years. Rich captured many family memories and amazing mega truck shots throughout the years at our events.”
Lucrecia Macias Barajas.
(GoFundMe photo)
Unconfirmed cases
The unconfirmed possible dog attack victims, Lucrecia Macias Barajas, 46, and an unidentified man believed to be in his thirties, were found dead on May 12, 2025 by one of Barajas’ adult daughters in a tent locked from the inside at a Los Angeles homeless encampment.
Barajas’ dogs, a pit bull and a German shepherd mix, also found inside the tent, had reportedly eaten parts of her body, but her cause of death, and that of the man, have yet to be determined.
A native of Nicaragua, Barajas was a U.S. Army veteran.
Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.
One of Barajas’ daughters, Amely Beccera, told KTLA News of Los Angeles that, “I want people to know she wasn’t a homeless drug addict, because that’s not true. Some people are coming to that conclusion and that’s not fair. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
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The post New Florida “Pam Rock Act” might not have saved pit bull victim Pam Rock appeared first on Animals 24-7.