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President-elect Trump’s attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, was once caught up in a legal battle with a Louisiana couple over a dog named Tank — and was even accused of stealing the beloved St. Bernard.
The dispute dates back to 2005, when Tank’s owners, Steve and Dorreen Couture, placed the dog in an animal shelter in Louisiana to ensure his safety during Hurricane Katrina. The St. Bernard eventually ended up at the Pinellas Humane Society in Florida, where Bondi, 59, adopted him and renamed him Noah, according to The Tampa Bay Times.
Bondi, a prominent animal rights advocate during her tenure as Florida’s attorney general, frequently brought rescue dogs to cabinet meetings and supported a 2018 ballot measure to ban dog racing in Florida, Naples News reported.
Tank was among thousands of pets separated from their owners during the devastating storm, which caused widespread destruction, displacing families and leading to 1,392 deaths. The Coutures later tracked Tank to Bondi in the Tampa Bay area in 2006. However, the Florida prosecutor resisted returning the dog, arguing Tank had been “severely neglected” under their care.
“He was dying from heartworms. They had filled his heart,” Bondi told the St. Petersburg Times. “I took a dog who was a walking skeleton. That’s what was wrong with him before the hurricane.” She added, “If I thought I was sending him to a stable environment, where he would be cared for, as hard as it would be, I’d put him in my car and drive him back myself.”
The Coutures denied the accusations of neglect, maintaining that the heartworm issue was a long-standing medical condition. They ultimately sued Bondi, demanding Tank’s return.
The legal battle, which gained attention on CNN, Fox News, and in People magazine, lasted 16 months before being settled out of court. While the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, the Coutures regained custody of Tank.
“She stole my dog,” Dorreen Couture, who passed away in October, told the St. Petersburg Times in 2010 from her rebuilt Louisiana home.
During Bondi’s successful 2010 campaign for Florida attorney general, she stated that the matter was resolved and claimed to have received “tremendous support from people and animal rights activists” over the issue. Despite the settlement, both sides reportedly fell out of contact after the case concluded.
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