President-elect Trump’s lawyer basic nominee, Pam Bondi, was as soon as caught up in a authorized dogfight with a Louisiana couple over a pooch named Tank — and was even accused of stealing the beloved canine.
The sordid spat goes again to 2005, when Tank’s homeowners, Steve and Dorreen Couture, put the St. Bernard in an animal shelter in Louisiana to journey out Hurricane Katrina.
Tank was later turned over to the Pinellas Humane Society in Florida and finally adopted by Bondi, 59, who renamed him Noah, The Tampa Bay Instances reported.
Bondi was a outstanding animals rights activist throughout her time as Florida’s lawyer basic — usually bringing bow-tie clad rescue canine to cupboard conferences — and supported a poll measure to ban canine racing within the Sunshine State in 2018, the Naples Information reported.
Tank was considered one of 1000’s of canine separated from their homeowners in the course of the catastrophic storm, which destroyed tens of 1000’s of houses and led to 1,392 deaths.
The Coutures ultimately tracked down Tank to the Tampa Bay space and Bondi in 2006, however the Florida prosecutor didn’t wish to return the animal, in response to the outlet.
Bondi argued Tank had been “severely uncared for” and abused whereas within the care of the Coutures and contended it will be higher if the canine stayed together with her.
“He was dying from heartworms. That they had crammed his coronary heart,” she instructed the St. Petersburg Instances. “I took a canine who was a strolling skeleton. That’s what was fallacious with him earlier than the hurricane.”
“If I assumed I used to be sending him to a secure atmosphere, the place he can be cared for, as onerous as it will be, I’d put him in my automotive and drive him again myself,” Bondi mentioned.
The Coutures denied accusations of neglect, claiming the heart-worm situation had been a longterm medical situation, and ultimately sued Bondi demanding the return of Tank.
The authorized drama lasted 16 months and performed out on CNN, Fox Information and the pages of Folks journal.
The 2 sides settled shortly earlier than the case got here to trial, and whereas the phrases weren’t disclosed, the Coutures obtained their canine again.
And although issues formally ended amicably, the couple and Bondi swiftly fell out of contact.
“She stole my canine,” Dorreen Couture, who died in October, instructed the St. Petersburg Instances in 2010 from her rebuilt Louisiana residence.
In Bondi’s profitable marketing campaign for Florida lawyer basic in 2010, she insisted the matter was settled and that she had obtained a “super quantity of help from folks and animal rights activists” over the problem.
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