FREE BRINDI

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Halifax you are NOT entitled to adopt Brindi out! She already has a loving home - my home!

So tonight CTV Atlantic ran a top story saying "Brindi the dog gets new owner" [Ed. note: The story was taken down a few days later]. That's news to me!

You might expect me to welcome such news, but I could not be more upset. And for a host of reasons.

Sure, I got an email from the HRM prosecutor Katherine Salsman on Monday, saying HRM will "proceed with the adoption". What adoption, I asked? Just days before, and ever since 2010, this woman has had a one-track mind about killing Brindi.*

Then I warned her that it was not entitled to do this legally - not now and not for a long time, thanks to the lawsuit that HRM itself forced me to file back in 2008 (more on this below).

But I didn't think CTV would just blindly report this story without checking facts. And, they said they tried to contact me for a comment. Yet I didn't get one call, email, or tweet, nothing.

FIRST: THIS IS A MASSIVE REVERSAL FOR HRM!

Did anybody think to ask the responsible parties at city hall why, after SEVEN YEARS of trying to kill her (lawfully or unlawfully), they are suddenly willing to let my beautiful, smart, loving girl live?

Isn't HRM essentially conceding it's been wrong all along??

I think so. So my heart has been broken over and over, I lived through hell for seven years, suffering from trauma after trauma, fear and grief, PTSD, depression, enduring countless losses and hardship, unable to work full time, unable to complete major home renovations, unable to live, essentially - and the same for Brindi, who has been made ill and kept in isolation year after year after year, all for nothing. Of course, for nothing. I already knew this - so did HRM, frankly, because it always knew it had no case for seizing and killing Brindi.

But no way does HRM now get to do an about-face and talk about adoption as if it was already a done-deal. Not so fast!!! Not until and unless those responsible are held accountable for all the damage done, in addition to wasting taxpayer money on needless and, let's be honest, malicious prosecution.

SECONDLY... Can we believe HRM and its prosecutor, Ms. Salsman?

How do we know for sure what HRM will really do with Brindi, let alone what it is doing to her now? Not only has HRM been dishonest in the past about Brindi and other dogs; its "staff" have cloaked themselves in excessive secrecy, the kind that shouts "We have something to hide!"

THIRDLY... It's a bit premature for HRM to announce adoption, because of the following.

HELP! HALIFAX WANTS TO KILL MY DOG!

My beloved companion and partner, over six years on death row and it's not over! In July 2008, Halifax dogcatchers seized my dog Brindi on an order to destroy her they issued without any warning - and without legal backing. Her crimes? Two reported scuffles with other dogs, and a third instance of getting loose accidentally, running to check out an approaching dog, which she never touched. She never bit a person or inflicted an injury to a dog that required medical attention. The city refused to reconsider, let alone negotiate; it rejected every alternative to killing Brindi, ignoring pleas from neighbors, trainer, vet, groomer, kennel owner, and hundreds of others - and no less than 5 positive behaviour assessments. A long, traumatic, destructive battle, with judges virtually washing their hands of her and sweeping aside all legal constraints on the city. In fact, they gave it more power - leaving her fate in the hands of the city that already decided to kill her! Halifax never deemed her dangerous - and the law does not even require dangerous dogs to be put down. HELP!