Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Brindi's life in the balance

Brindi is a dog out in Halifax whose life or death will be decided by a judge on March 9. I'd posted about Brindi before but then let it slide, waiting for the outcome of the legal proceedings. Well, the trial for Brindi's owner, Francesca Rogier, concluded last week and she has been found guilty on three charges: 1. owning a dog that was running at large, 2. owning a dog that attacked another dog and 3. failing to comply with a muzzle order. So, under the eyes of the law, Rogier is guilty and will be sentenced next week. At the same time, Brindi will also be "sentenced" the difference being that Brindi's sentence could be life ending.

During the last 19 months which Brindi has spent confined at the Nova Scotia SPCA awaiting all the legal proceedings to finish, she's made some friends. Here's a recent letter written by the NS SPCA on her behalf to the prosecution:

(click on image to enlarge)




And Brindi's got a lot more supporters than that especially given her on-line presence along with coverage in mainstream media. It would seem that no one wants Brindi dead except for animal control and city prosecutors - and how often have we heard the same story here in Ontario? (Why are so many municipal agencies at war with their citizens over their dogs?)

The drama isn't just about Brindi, though. Rogier has become quite a controversial figure herself recently, polarizing many people within the animal welfare community with her strong pronouncements on various matters and people. In some ways, the story about the owner's behaviour has overshadowed the story about the fate of the dog and that's unfortunate.

If you want to find out more about Rogier and Brindi you can just google "Brindi Halifax" and you'll get hundreds of links - a most impressive use of social media to advance a cause. The online chatter is more like a roar at times, though not always very accurate or civilized.

This is Rogier's own site, Free Brindi.

This is the Facebook site, Save BRINDI From the City of Halifax.

Joan Sinden's site has a lot of information about the whole Brindi/Rogier affair. Sinden has come under attack by some of Rogier's supporters for questioning certain aspects of Rogier's actions in this whole ordeal and I think she's removed her earlier posts because the hate mail started pouring in. She's got some recent posts, though. It's a very interesting read, especially if you go through some of the many comments, that perhaps gives insight to why the animal welfare community so often eats its own. Just type in "Brindi" in the search box on her blog and the posts will come up or you can start with this one, Deconstructing a BAD newspaper article.

If you have a moment, please express your concern for Brindi's fate. Here's the contact info:

Director of Legal Services Mary Ellen Donovan at
HRM Legal Services
POB 1749
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 3A5
Fax: 902-490-4232
http://www.halifax.ca/legal/index.html

AND

Mayor Peter Kelly at kellyp@halifax.ca, phone: 1-902-490-4010, fax: 1-902-864-6917

6 comments:

Joan Sinden said...

Before you contact the Mayor, you may want to read a blog post I wrote today - http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/2010/03/responsible-dog-owners-send-flowers.html - and THEN backtrack and read my other posts about this topic - I have a category for it at http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/search/label/Brindi

Joan Sinden
http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/

Joan Sinden said...

I have to tell you though that I don't have the energy or inclination to try to drown out all the misinformation that is being spewed out about this story - I even notice that KC Dog Blog has put a posting out about this story - and it's skewed toward Francesca and not toward where a responsible dog owner living in Halifax would be turning their energy towards - and when I saw that - I realized that the world has turned upside down, and there's not too much I can do about it. People are going to think what they want. And call who they want, whether I think it's the right thing to do, and whether it's going to be positive for my own dog community or not.

So everyone - do what you like.

Joan

Fred said...

Joan, you can't fix everything that is wrong on the internet. If you try, your brains will explode. I know mine has, several times, and it's a mess to clean up.

As for KCDogBlog, I think if you read the comments following the post, he's fair in his assessment of the situation (plus there's a link to your site). His support is for Brindi, not necessarily her owner.

As for Halifax city council getting flak over this and getting fed up with it, it's unfortunate they're taking it out on Halifax dog owners - but doesn't that say something about city council?

Anonymous said...

Just a head's up - the fax for the mayor's office doesn't work. I got this off their page:
http://www.halifax.ca/council/mayor/contact.html

(902) 490-4012

Jeff de la Rosa said...

Gee. Thanks, Joan, for letting us all do what we like. I think the best thing for you would be if Brindi went home. I'd hate to be you if she doesn't.

Joan Sinden said...

I see that Jeff has been to your blog, Fred. You might want to check out a blog post I've written. It's here - http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/2010/03/jeff-de-la-rosa.html if you want to read it.

Thanks,

Joan