BROWARD – Although most pet owners take special care of their four-legged friends, horror stories abound in South Florida of homes overrun with cats and pets severely neglected.

Broward commissioners passed a measure Tuesday that overhauls animal care, aiming to protect domesticated pets from abuse., the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

A first, the law spells out standards for how Broward pet owners must care for their dogs and cats and classifies “hoarding” of animals as illegal abuse.

In addition, the law states feral cats must be neutered or spayed and released back into a colony, an effort at diminishing the number of “community cats” left at the county’s shelters, where they are often euthanized.

Read more about the law’s impact in the full article.

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