Legal News

Trying To Get a Dog Off Death Row

By Chris Herring

We had to find a way to mention dogs on the day that Michael Vick (left with his attorney, Larry Woodward) is released from federal custody.

But this time the dog is the accused. And for Mercedes, the pitbull mix, it’s ONE strike and you’re out.

Yes, Brian Hoesch’s Mercedes did attack and kill a cat without being provoked. According to Florida state law, that offense — a dog killing another domestic animal in an unprovoked attack — doesn’t prompt the death penalty after a first offense. But because Mr. Hoesch (and Mercedes) live in Broward County, Fla. — where a stricter ordinance that allows dogs to be put down after a first offense was recently put into place — they are subject to a different set of rules. Thus, Mercedes sits on death row, waiting to find out if Hoesch’s lawyers can get the law struck down as unconstitutional.

”Dog kills a cat, or another dog, goodbye,” said Jason Wandner, Mr. Hoesch’s attorney, who’s trying to overturn the law. “The dog is just summarily executed. Under the new law, there are no second chances.” Click here to read the story in the Miami Herald on the issue.

A Broward Circuit Court judge recently rejected the argument that the new ordinance is unconstitutional, saying that the county has the right to make its rules more strict than the rest of the state.

According to the Miami Herald, about five such cases are appealing the constitutionality of the new law in Broward County, where 30 dogs have been put down as a result of the dangerous-dog ordinance since it was implemented in May 2008. Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, told the Herald that Broward County sports one of the nation’s strictest ordinances.

While he thinks the ordinance will be upheld, Bob Jarvis, of Nova Southeastern University, told the paper he can see the constitutional argument: “The county law allows the seizure of property — in this case, pets — without due process… You’re taking my property without giving me a chance to argue why I should keep [it].”

But to Stan Peters, who owned the cat Mercedes killed, there isn’t a good argument to be made for the dog. ”Being an animal lover, I hate to euthanize any creature,” he said. “But . . . it could happen again.”

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).