---
type: "Bill"
title: "Animal Welfare"
description: "Animal Welfare; Creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, animal cruelty; requiring a court to order a minor who commits specified acts of animal cruelty to undergo a psychological evaluation and receive counseling and treatment for a specified time period; requiring the minor's parent or guardian or the state to pay the cost of such evaluation, counseling, and treatment; providing an exception; authorizing the court to hold the parent or guardian in contempt under certain circumstances; requiring the Department of Law Enforcement to post on its website specified information relating to each individual convicted of specified animal cruelty offenses; specifying time periods for which the information shall be posted; requiring the department to develop a procedure to allow a person to petition for the removal of his or her information under specified circumstances; requiring the department to remove specified information under specified circumstances; specifying the time period within which such information must be removed; authorizing the department to adopt rules; requiring clerks of court and county detention facilities to provide the Department of Law Enforcement with specified information, data, and images; creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, fighting or baiting animals; creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, sexual activities involving animals; increasing the maximum civil penalty for specified violations of ordinances relating to animal control or cruelty; increasing the level on the offense severity ranking chart for fighting or baiting animals; ranking offenses created by the act on the offense severity ranking chart, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 559"
citation: "Florida HB 559 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["crimes", "criminal procedure and corrections", "domestic relations", "evidence", "judicial branch", "social welfare"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2026-78"
primary_sponsors: ["Chaney", "López, J."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 38
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2025-12-01"
last_action: "2026-05-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/14b4d957-307d-42b8-90c5-3a053a5592f8"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/559/ByCategory"
source_hash: "c67ae607571bc5dad660e147f2348d044fab4cae11c3938407b22aadbdb8b999"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida HB 559 (2026) — Animal Welfare

Animal Welfare; Creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, animal cruelty; requiring a court to order a minor who commits specified acts of animal cruelty to undergo a psychological evaluation and receive counseling and treatment for a specified time period; requiring the minor's parent or guardian or the state to pay the cost of such evaluation, counseling, and treatment; providing an exception; authorizing the court to hold the parent or guardian in contempt under certain circumstances; requiring the Department of Law Enforcement to post on its website specified information relating to each individual convicted of specified animal cruelty offenses; specifying time periods for which the information shall be posted; requiring the department to develop a procedure to allow a person to petition for the removal of his or her information under specified circumstances; requiring the department to remove specified information under specified circumstances; specifying the time period within which such information must be removed; authorizing the department to adopt rules; requiring clerks of court and county detention facilities to provide the Department of Law Enforcement with specified information, data, and images; creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, fighting or baiting animals; creating the offense of causing or enticing a minor to commit, or in the presence of a minor committing, sexual activities involving animals; increasing the maximum civil penalty for specified violations of ordinances relating to animal control or cruelty; increasing the level on the offense severity ranking chart for fighting or baiting animals; ranking offenses created by the act on the offense severity ranking chart, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2026-78.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **H 559 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/559/BillText/Filed/PDF)
2. **H 559 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/559/BillText/c1/PDF)
3. **H 559 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/559/BillText/er/PDF)

## Votes

- Favorable (Judiciary Committee) — **19–0** (pass) · lower
- Passage, Third Reading — **114–0** (pass) · lower
- Third Reading — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable (Criminal Justice Subcommittee) — **15–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Chaney — primary (person)
- Criminal Justice Subcommittee — primary (organization)
- López, J. — primary (person)
- Bartleman — cosponsor (person)
- Basabe — cosponsor (person)
- Cross — cosponsor (person)
- Hunschofsky — cosponsor (person)
- Mooney — cosponsor (person)
- Plasencia — cosponsor (person)
- Valdés — cosponsor (person)
- Weinberger — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-12-01** Filed `filing`
- **2025-12-12** Referred to Criminal Justice Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2025-12-12** Referred to Justice Budget Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2025-12-12** Referred to Judiciary Committee `referral-committee`
- **2025-12-12** Now in Criminal Justice Subcommittee
- **2026-01-13** 1st Reading (Original Filed Version) `filing, reading-1`
- **2026-02-03** PCS added to Criminal Justice Subcommittee agenda
- **2026-02-05** Favorable with CS by Criminal Justice Subcommittee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-02-05** Reported out of Criminal Justice Subcommittee
- **2026-02-05** Laid on Table under Rule 7.18(a) `deferral`
- **2026-02-05** CS Filed `filing`
- **2026-02-05** 1st Reading (Committee Substitute 1) `reading-1`
- **2026-02-06** Referred to Judiciary Committee `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-06** Now in Judiciary Committee
- **2026-02-13** Added to Judiciary Committee agenda
- **2026-02-17** Favorable by Judiciary Committee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-02-17** Reported out of Judiciary Committee
- **2026-02-17** Bill released to House Calendar
- **2026-02-17** Added to Second Reading Calendar
- **2026-02-19** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (2/25/2026)
- **2026-02-25** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-25** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2026-02-25** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2026-02-25** CS passed; YEAS 114, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2026-02-25** In Messages
- **2026-02-26** Referred to Rules `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-26** Received `enrolled`
- **2026-03-04** Withdrawn from Rules `withdrawal`
- **2026-03-04** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2026-03-04** Substituted for CS/SB 676
- **2026-03-04** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2026-03-04** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2026-03-04** CS passed; YEAS 37 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2026-03-04** In Messages
- **2026-03-04** Ordered enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-05-11** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-05-12** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2026-05-13** Chapter No. 2026-78

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/14b4d957-307d-42b8-90c5-3a053a5592f8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).