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?

Francesca rages, Brindi languishes

The battle to determine the fate of Brindi is about to turn itself into a much larger affair now that Francesca Rogier, Brindi's owner, has threatened, on her Facebook site, to go on a hunger strike. I can't even begin to go into the details here about what's transpired over the last few days as the whole sad-for-Brindi affair is starting to take on a soap operatic quality with a lot of he said she said type accusations being flung about. Joan's site, Me and my dogs in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has the best coverage of this and if you want back and forth drama just check out the 58 comments and counting on her latest entry Cease and Desist from Francesca Rogier. Kudos to Joan for filtering out the riff raff and keeping her house in order under this barrage.

In my earlier post on this, I had expressed support for Ms. Rogier's fight to regain ownership of Brindi but given some of her recent actions, I'm not so sure now. She's definitely under severe emotional duress and that might account for her lack of judgment in attempting a hunger strike and in burning bridges with anyone who even remotely questions her past actions and future intentions but I suspect that most people will just view her implosion as further justification for keeping Brindi out of her hands. I know I do. Well, sort of I do.

Yeah, yeah, so I'm sitting on the fence now on this one. On the one hand, I totally feel for Ms. Rogier wanting Brindi alive and back in her arms. I get that. Especially the keep Brindi alive part. On the other hand, I'm wondering if Ms. Rogier's going a little cuckoo for Coco Puffs and if she is, will she be able to handle Brindi in the case of the dog's return? If I were in her shoes, maybe I'd be going nuts too. Certainly the out of control on-line publicity she's generated for herself can't be calming her nerves.

I'm being a bit flippant here but at the heart of this matter is a dog months in jail now still awaiting a possible execution. I've seen dogs imprisoned in small concrete cells for months on end and it's heartrending. Regardless of people's opinions of Ms. Rogier, no one wants Brindi kept in a cage or dead, except, it seems, for the City of Halifax. The section of the law that was used to put Brindi on the kill list in the first place has been struck down so I don't understand why the insistence on carrying through with her death sentence. I'd say that Halifax Regional Municipality has already done an admirable job of covering their asses against future liability so now maybe they can do something for Brindi and either give it back to Ms. Rogier or rehome it.

addendum: Looks like the hunger strike idea has been removed from her Facebook site.

Why is Brindi still in jail?

Brindi's owner, Francesca Rogier, lives in East Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia and she wants her dog back. She wants her dog back so much that she's helped get a city by-law changed, spent thousands of dollars in legal fees, launched an awareness campaign that's gotten her enough publicity to be interviewed by all the major Canadian networks - and all of this since last July when Halifax animal control officers entered her house with a court order to seize Brindi for euthanization.

This all started over a year ago when off leash Brindi attacked another dog by grabbing and holding onto the back of the other dog's neck. According to Rogier, she got them separated and there was little to no injury involved and the other owner declined her offer to cover any vet bills. Still, the other owner reported them to animal control reasoning that "it might have been a child".

(As an aside, I just want to mention that I hate it when people use this type of transference model. Maybe to certain morons on two legs, it's difficult to tell the difference between a child and dog but most dogs are highly aware of the differences. Why is it that when a dog kills a squirrel or herds sheep or hunts a fox, those same concerned morons make no child associations with such actions? Is it because the moron's own sense of the world around him is so vague and blurry that he himself can only distinguish between, say, a rat and child but not between a dog and child? Perhaps in the case of those morons, it would be in the public interest to have them wear the collar and the dog hold the leash.)

A second incident resulted in an injury to the other dog that resulted in a vet visit and a course of antibiotics for minor puncture wounds, the total cost of which was $150 which Rogier offered to pay (hell, I pay $150 just to breathe the air in my vet's office). It also got Brindi a permanent muzzle order.

According to the officer who issued the muzzle order, a number of people in the community had phoned in to the pound insisting that Brindi be put down - and this is where I find it gets a little troubling. If the officer wasn't exaggerating, this means that either Brindi had a history of running loose and getting into dog fights which Rogier is keeping quiet or else the community she lives in has more than its share of spiteful, small town, rumour mongering xenophobes (and at least one moron who even now may be sending his dog off on the school bus while his child is eating green tripe and raw chicken out of the dog dish because he just can't tell the difference between the two).

Strike 3 for Brindi occurred last July when once again she was off leash and started circling and acting aggressively towards two dogs being walked in front of Rogier's property. None of the dogs were hurt and the other owner wasn't even going to call the pound to report the incident until he heard about the previous occurrences. But, report it he did and four days later, Brindi was hauled away to await execution.

So far, it wasn't looking so good for Rogier or Brindi. Irresponsible owner, vicious dog, a whole community up in arms. At least that must have been the way it seemed to the city officials who wanted Brindi dead.

But it wasn't going to be so simple. As it turns out, Rogier isn't an irresponsible owner, Brindi isn't a vicious dog and no one really seems to be 'fessin' up anymore to who or what city department or bureaucrat really wants Brindi dead.

The rest of the story so far can be found on Rogier's blog, Free Brindi. It's a long and emotionally bumpy story and along the way there are trials and letter writing campaigns and Facebook groups and petitions and marches and television crews and reporters all drawn together by the threat of execution of this one dog and her owner who just won't give up. I have to admit I haven't read every single entry but I've read enough from there and from other third party sources to come to my own conclusion which is expressed well enough by the title to this post.


How many times did I promise Brindi, gazing up at me with her sweet brown eyes, that she is safe with me, and nothing bad will happen to her again, that I will do everything to protect her, that I will always love her, and that we will be together always. Call me stunted, call me sentimental, but I have never made or been able to make such a promise to anyone in my life other than these helpless beings. I cannot comprehend that after such a brief time in her first real home, Brindi's life is at risk because the city believes she's a risk. And I cannot accept that I am helpless to save her: a dog that has not bitten a single person, whose "attacks" on passing dogs at the edge of my property were short-lived, and minor by any standard.

- Francesca Rogier

addendum:

Comment from House of the Discarded:

Did I miss something? I don't understand how Rogier couldn't be considered an irresponsible owner. She may love her dog, but not enough to protect him.

It's true - her dog shouldn't have to pay the price for her negligence. How many times does this dog have to attack other dogs for her to keep him on a leash?

I've moved your comment up to the main section because it really goes to the heart of this matter and I realized that I should have addressed the issue before putting this post up last night. At the time I was thinking that Rogier does a much better job of explaining herself than I ever could and it would be best for interested readers to just to go to her site (which in turn leads to other sites if one wanted to explore different sides of the affair). I still highly recommend readers do that but now I realize that the conclusion I wrote really was the result of a very subjective judgment call on my part (and thus obviously debatable) about her character and whether or not she would be a responsible dog owner in the future.

What I should have written last night is that I feel she is not an irresponsible dog owner though she behaved irresponsibly in the past. Yes, it's hard to fathom how someone who knows her dog is dog aggressive under certain situations (protective of property, in this case) can allow her dog to go unleashed not just once or twice but three times. I know my Rocky is highly dog reactive and the last thing I would do is open the front door for him without leashing him first. That just seems to be common sense. So, why did Rogier allow Brindi access to an open door or an unfenced yard without a leash on? I don't know and Rogier doesn't really explain other than to say they were accidents (at least I haven't found an explanation). Now one accident I can understand, but three in under a year? That was irresponsible behaviour and if that was all there was to it, well, Brindi needs to get into a new home.

On the flip side, though, Rogier took the responsible action in each case by immediately breaking up the fights and offering to foot any vet bills. Post incarceration of Brindi, Rogier has made the necessary changes to secure her yard against any future off property wanderings. She has tried to visit Brindi at the pound only to be barred (and this makes no sense to me at all so I'm thinking there's more to the story here). She has engaged lawyers. She has taken the case to trial. She has gotten a very unfair dog by-law repealed to the benefit of the community. She has created a very successful media campaign around her case. She has garnered and maintained the support of thousands of people (and that's no easy task). She has basically put her life on hold for the past several months trying to get Brindi off death row and back into her home.

I come across the results of truly irresponsible owners all the time. They leave their dogs at large, don't bother looking for them, won't even acknowledge the dog belongs to them if the dog is picked up, deliberately dump their dogs, abandon their dogs in vacated apartment - and the list of neglects goes on. In my subjective view, an irresponsible owner is someone who does not hold enough concern for their dog to care or take action if their pet is sick or hit by a car or out in the cold or hungry or in a cage at the pound. By that definition, I don't think Rogier is an irresponsible owner, though for some reason, she did not have the wherewithal to act in a responsible fashion in the past with regards to keeping her dog under her control. For those acts of irresponsibility, though, Rogier has more than paid the price: months of emotional anguish and thousands of dollars in legal fees. The optimistic side of me believes she's learned from her mistakes. Rogier deserves another chance with Brindi - and I suspect it'll be the last chance she gets - and Brindi definitely deserves to get out of jail.