Brindi to go home

Finally, an end to the Brindi saga is in sight:

From The Chronicle Herald, Brindi’s life spared:

It’s been almost two years since Rogier’s mixed-breed dog was seized by the Halifax Regional Municipality after it escaped from Rogier’s East Chezzetcook home on July, 20, 2008, and attacked another dog. Brindi was on a muzzle order at the time.

It was the fourth time Brindi, about seven, had attacked another dog and in her decision Judge Alanna Murphy said it was "clearly the most serious" of the incidents.

City lawyer Geoff Newton had asked the judge to order Brindi euthanized.

But Murphy said Rogier had been following the muzzle order and said "one lack of due diligence does not mean that (she) is unable or incapable" of properly handling the dog.

The judge handed down some conditions to go along with Brindi's release back to her owner, Ms. Rogier, but they basically amounted to what every responsible dog owner should be doing anyway: have control of their dogs.

I hope and suspect Ms. Rogier will comply with the judge's orders. It seems to me she's the type of person who, when she sets her mind to doing something, sees it through. This two year ordeal could not have been easy on her and it's obvious that perserverence is one of her strong points.

So that's the main thing, that Brindi gets to go home.

This story isn't just about one woman's fight to get her dog back from the city, though. It's also very much about where she took that fight: online.

I only ever got wind of Brindi's situation because of the massively successful online media campaign Ms. Rogier initiated back when Brindi was first taken from her. Back then, her online presence was only a speck compared to what it is now. Just type "Brindi" and "Halifax" into Google and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not really sure if the online presence had any bearing on the judge's final decision - out of respect for the law, I would say I hope not - but it certainly had a significant effect on people closely associated with the case who were inundated with e-mail campaigns, telephone calls and post mail urging whoever the recipient was to do the right thing - whatever that may have been according to the sender. It was like someone trying to settle a contentious divorce in the court of public opinion and it seemed everyone had a very strong opinion. It was not at all surprising then when small skirmishes broke off from the main one and netizens started attacking other netizens with differing viewpoints via blogs, e-mails and message boards.

These kinds of vitriolic public pissing matches just make the animal welfare community as whole look like a bunch of loons so that's when I tuned out. I've got my own lunacy to deal with; I don't need to absorb anyone else's.

The question is: Did all the online hubbub surrounding Brindi and Ms. Rogier have an impact on the final decision, positive, negative or not at all?