There has been a lot of interest in our previous post about a custody battle between hurricane Katrina evacuees and those who adopted the pets they left behind, so we thought an update was in order.
The case between the Couture family who left their dogs, Master Tank and Nila, behind when they fled the rising waters in Louisiana, and Pam Bondi who fostered, then later adopted Master Tank, has entered a holding pattern. The parties will be going to trial in November to determine who deserves custody of the former family pet. Ms Bondi claims Tank, who had heartworms when she took him in, had been clearly neglected even prior to Hurricane Katrina and is therefore better off with her. The Couture’s admit that Tank did have heartworms before the hurricane (the majority of pets who were rescued contracted heartworms in the storm’s aftermath), but claim that he already had heartworms when they adopted him at 10 months old and that he got monthly heartworm medicine. The Coutures have also been accused of abandoning the dogs to die in the flood. Not so, they say. Mrs. Couture and the two grandchildren evacuated before Katrina hit, but Mr. Couture stayed specifically to care for the dogs and the house. When the levees broke and the water rose, however, Mr. Couture had to be rescued by boat and was told he couldn’t bring the dogs. He left them in the house with food and water, expecting to be back soon. However, it was two weeks before anyone could re-enter the neighborhood and by then the dogs had been taken to an emergency animal shelter, and later transfered to the Pinellas Humane Society and adopted out.
While this case is far from over many, many more are underway. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah had 20 potential legal situations while trying to match up owners and foster groups. They managed to resolve about half of them with cooperation of all parties, but currently have five situations that are proceeding to court. There have also been refusals to return pets whose ownership was clearly documented and confirmed by judgments, by the fosters who firmly believe the pets weren’t being cared for correctly.
Cases like these are being closely watched by animal rights activists and animal law experts, who say judges could carve new precedent if they consider a pet’s best interests when deciding who gets custody rather than just considering pets to be “property”. This would obviously be a big step forward for animal rights.
We at Pop Art Pet will continue to keep you informed.
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