Duval County woman gets probation, not prison, in Great Dane abandonment case

UPDATE, Oct. 1, 7:23 p.m.: This story has been updated with a statement from Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Nearly 11 months after her Great Dane, Oak, was found abandoned and severely emaciated on a Jacksonville roadside, Dawn Lipford has been sentenced to five years of probation.

Lipford, 43, appeared in Duval County court Wednesday, where Judge Tatiana Salvador adjudicated her guilty and ordered her to serve five years of probation and complete 300 hours of community service, 20 hours a month, at a site not related to animals. She was also ordered to register under Dexter’s Law in a database maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Dexter’s Law, which took effect Jan. 1, created a public, searchable statewide database of people convicted of animal cruelty.

Lipford initially pleaded not guilty on Dec. 2 but changed her plea to guilty in July to aggravated animal cruelty, a third-degree felony in Florida punishable by up to five years in prison. The case began Nov. 2, 2025, when local animal advocate Perrin Todd found Oak lying on the side of a Northside roadway.

He was rushed to Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services, where staff renamed him “Miracle.” Despite treatment, Oak ultimately had to be euthanized, according to ACPS.

The case drew public outcry, with First Coast Crime Stoppers and Todd offering a combined $8,000 reward. A tip led Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigators to Lipford, who was arrested Nov. 7 on a felony animal cruelty charge, accused of abandoning Oak.

Lipford was initially due to be sentenced Aug. 17, but the sentencing was pushed after she was hospitalized for a brief illness, her lawyer told the judge at the previous hearing. It was since rescheduled three more times.

While sitting in the gallery, Lipford’s lawyer, Thomas Duffy Jr., approached her and could be heard telling his client, “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Lipford was the first person called to the stand. Asked whether she was sorry for what happened, she said, “Very, very sorry. It still haunts me to this day.”

When prosecutor Cyrus Zomodorian asked why she pleaded guilty if she maintains she did not abuse Oak, Lipford said she was advised by her attorney to do so.

“I’m only guilty of abandonment, yes sir,” she said, “but not guilty of starvation.”

Lipford testified that she faced financial hardship in late 2025 and couldn’t afford the veterinary care or euthanasia Oak needed. She said she left him “where someone would find him.”

Chelsea Stratton, the Animal Care and Protective Services officer who handled the case, testified that Oak was left on West 45th Street in Northside, an area she described as “out of the way” and “very secluded,” with only one house nearby. A microchip scan traced him to Lipford, she said. Stratton testified that Lipford’s oldest daughter first told her Oak had been rehomed, but the people she named had never heard of the family or the dog.

Dr. Samantha Stephenson, the ACPS veterinarian who treated Oak, described him as “severely emaciated” and said he ranked at the worst possible level on the Purina body condition scale. Oak was at the shelter three to four hours before staff euthanized him because he was suffering, she testified.

Oak weighed 52 pounds when he died, Stephenson said. An adult male Great Dane typically weighs 140 to 170 pounds.

“You could see every bone in his body,” she told the court, describing his hip bones, spine, ribs and skull. The muscles in his head were “nonexistent.”

Losing that much fat and muscle would have taken several weeks of starvation, probably three to four and possibly up to six, Stephenson testified. A necropsy found water mixed with leaves in his stomach, and she said she found no other medical reason for him to be so thin.

The prosecution asked for five years in prison and for Lipford to be adjudicated guilty, saying she should be “nowhere near animals.”

“I think it’s clear from the testimony that she killed this dog,” Zomodorian said.

Duffy argued there was no evidence Oak wasn’t fed and that the dog had a pancreatic disease. He asked Salvador for no jail time, suggesting community service or house arrest because of Lipford’s health and her daughters’ disabilities.

“She’s a good mother. She’s a damn good person and she hasn’t done anything wrong to this day,” Duffy said, getting emotional. “Judge, please don’t put her in jail.”

Salvador questioned the state’s request, asking why it was seeking prison for a defendant with no prior record who doesn’t score for a maximum prison sentence. She then left the bench to review the evidence.

Duffy did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Animal Care and Protective Services Chief Michael Bricker did not immediately respond to a voicemail and an email, but the agency said in a Facebook post Thursday that it believed the maximum sentence would have been appropriate for the level of cruelty Oak endured.

“The outcome may not have been everything we hoped for, but it was not nothing,” the agency wrote.

The post praised Stephenson’s medical documentation and Stratton’s investigative work for seeing the case through to court.

Few people have attended Lipford’s earlier sentencing hearings, and Todd told HomeFetch she did not expect to be at this one. About six people sat in the first row of the gallery in support of Lipford.

Salvador has received nearly 200 letters and emails from concerned citizens, many urging the maximum sentence, according to court records, with the most recent being from Sept. 28, the last date Lipford was due to be sentenced before the hearing was rescheduled.

Outside the courtroom, Lipford’s family surrounded her, and could be heard saying, “It’s over, it’s over.”

Todd said she is “incredibly disappointed” in the sentencing outcome.

“We hold out hope that people who commit crime will get the punishment they deserve. I was very hopeful that the judge, because of the new law, would take everything into account and hold this woman accountable for her actions,” she said. “It sends a message to all the people that if you have a sick pet and you don’t want it anymore, you can dump it in the middle of the woods and let it die.”