The owner of an 11-year-old husky on Broward County's dog "death row'' is hoping for a pardon from the governor.
Brandie, sentenced to death under a law passed by the County Commission in 2008, awaits her fate in a dog kennel in Sunrise, where she's been about six months. Brandie was being walked on her leash when she encountered an unleashed poodle named Jack, outside Jack's home.
Jack did not survive the confrontation.
The death sentence for Brandie grew into a lawsuit — one of at least five such lawsuits against the county — and a community cause that is expected to lead to a change in the county law.
Brandie's owners rallied against then-Mayor Ken Keechl during his election campaign, because he'd championed the new law. A Facebook page to "Save Brandie'' gained 1,913 members. And when Keechl lost, his successor, Chip LaMarca, promised to get the law changed. He said he'll make his first attempt Tuesday, at the county's regular meeting.
Meanwhile, the state clemency board meets on Thursday. That put an idea in Suzanne Citere's head. She's friends with Brandie's owners, and wants her life saved. Citere sent a letter to the governor, asking for a pardon.
"Hey, he is doing it for Jim Morrison, and the president pardons the turkeys on Thanksgiving, so I figured it can't hurt to ask!'' she said to the Sun Sentinel in an e-mail.
The governor's office said they got her request, and though Brandie's plea for life isn't on the clemency board's agenda this week, spokesman Sterling Ivey said "we are reviewing it.''
Broward County has put at least 56 dogs to sleep since the law's passage in May 2008, according to Keechl.
State law allows a dog two attacks before it's declared dangerous. Broward's law allows just one. LaMarca said that's not reasonable.
The county's law says if a dog is off the owner's property and seriously injures or kills a person, or kills a domestic animal, unprovoked, it is sentenced to die.
In Brandie's case, she was being walked in her Coconut Creek neighborhood by the mother-in-law of her owner Lon Lipsky, on a retractable leash, when she met up with Jack, a teacup poodle.
Jack's owners were outside taking pictures after an honor society event, and he ran out the door, they told investigators. Jack's owners said Brandie lunged into their driveway and killed Jack "in a seamless motion, with no barking, no fighting and no sound, in an attack that finished in seconds.''
Brandie's owners said Jack jumped up in her face, provoking her, and that she remained on the public sidewalk.
The county has a leash law, and Jack was not on a leash, but county animal control investigator Tim Keller didn't cite Jack's owners because "it was his opinion the dog was killed on his own property,'' according to a county report.
On May 25, Broward hearing officer Dahlia Walker-Huntington said she knew someone wasn't telling the truth, but she believed Jack's owner, Susie Salameh. As such, she declared Brandie dangerous and ordered that she "be disposed of by the county in a humane manner.''
Since then, Lipsky, 43, said he's spent more than $5,000 keeping Brandie alive — at $14 a day in the shelter, plus an attorney. He and his wife and their 2-year-old daughter drive 20 minutes each way to visit Brandie four times a week. His family rescued Brandie from the Humane Society seven years ago, he said, and they love her.
"She's in her golden years,'' he said. "She's probably got what, maybe two years left in her life?''
But after fighting all these months, Lipsky said he's weary.
"I'm just tired. I'm tired. I just want my dog home, and I don't have the energy to put into it anymore. It's not that I've given up. But I'm just waiting,'' he said.
At least one of LaMarca's colleagues, John Rodstrom, said he agrees that law needs a second look. Rodstrom was part of a unanimous vote to pass the new law, but now that it's in practice, he said it's "too strict'' and needs exceptions.
The request for a state pardon gave some a chuckle.
"I think it's sort of embarrassing it has to come to that,'' LaMarca said, "but I respect them for being creative.''
