Rottweiler Is Subject of Custody Battle
By JASON W. ARMSTRONG (Daily Journal Staff Writer)

SANTA ANA -- The tug-of-war over custody of a 123-pound Rottweiler named Guinness is set for a court hearing next month, and a lawyer who specializes in animal law said it may be the first time a battle over one of man’s four-legged friends has reached an Orange County Court.

Former Orange County resident C. Brooks Brann, who now lives in Montana, filed suit against his ex-girlfriend, Newport Beach resident Patricia K. Dalby, claiming Dalby wouldn’t return his canine when the couple separated. Dalby contends the dog belongs to her. The case has a trial setting conference April 5 at Harbor court, and attorneys with the Animal Legal Defense Fund plan to file a friend of the court brief in the case.

Santa Ana attorney Robert Newman, who is representing the defendant, said a majority of animal custody cases are resolved away from court. “I have never heard of another animal custody case in this county,” he said.

Plaintiff’s counsel David Marble said Dalby already had a dog when Dalby and Brann were dating, and Brann “made arrangements” to rescue Guinness from a veterinarian to be both his pet and a companion for Dalby’s Rottweiler Roxie. After the couple split up, Brann moved to Montana and Dalby hid Guinness from his owner, Marble said.

“Guinness belongs to my client,” the San Francisco attorney said by telephone Thursday. “[Dalby] has refused to turn the dog over. She has taken justice into her own hands.”

Newman disagreed. “This is a situation where Guinness was brought into my client’s home. The plaintiff left that home, and the dog remained. There was never a conversation about whose dog it was.”

He said Guinness and Roxie are bonded, and to separate them would be the equivalent of “tearing apart two children.

Brann’s suit, filed in January, asks for return of the dog and $25,000 in general and punitive damages. Brann v. Dalby, 99HL04290.

Barbara Newell, staff attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund in Rockville, VA., said her organization plans to make a motion to file an ‘amicus curiae,’ or friend of the court brief, in the case.

The brief will lay out legal authorities and provide information about how the law is evolving in the treatment of animals, Newell said.

“The tide id beginning to turn. It is rare, but there are courts that are beginning to recognize animals as something more than objects,” she said.

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