Jean Harrison represents Prada's owner, Nicole Andree.
Health Department Spokesperson Brian ToddNASHVILLE, Tenn. -
A Nashville dog owner and lawyer are continuing to fight for the life of a pit bull-mix that has been held in a cage at the Metro Animal Control for more than a year after attacking several dogs.
Jean Harrison represents Prada's owner, Nicole Andree.
The Music Row lawyer told Nashville's News 2 Investigates that Prada is not in danger of being euthanized, at least not immediately.
Harrison said she plans to file motions, and the soonest the court can hear her is sometime in March.
According to Harrison, she plans to file motions at that time which she hopes will delay any efforts to put Prada down.
Harrison also said local animal activists have flooded Mayor Karl Dean's office with emails about saving the dog and questioning the professionalism of the Animal Control.
Nashville's News 2 attempted to contact the mayor's office for a comment, but the call was not immediately returned.
Additionally, Harrison said she has been in discussion with a number of rescue officials locally and around the country in an effort to find a good home for Prada.
Harrison said the Prada story illustrates an Animal Control that is not professionally run.
"How did this occur and what kind of procedures do they have in place to prevent this type of thing," she said.
However, Health Department officials said they could not see this more differently.
According to spokesperson Brian Todd, Prada is a vicious animal that has repeatedly attacked.
"How are we perceived in the community? Very well. Humane Society of the United States has brought other county's animal cruelty cases to us to care for. That says a lot for our program and the people who work out there," he said.
Harrison said she questions how Prada was able to get out of her locked cage and get to another dog that she maintains was unsupervised outside.
"I want to know how a dog under the care and control of a dog officer gets through three heavy doors to get to a dog outside where the cameras are not working," she said.
Harrison also calls into question the training of personnel after a video shot last August shows a worker cleaning an area of animal control when Prada suddenly attacked another dog.
The animal control officer intervenes and is shown, repeatedly and forcefully, kicking and punching both dogs.
The incident ends 20 seconds later when a second employee pulls Prada away.
Both dogs are then shown wagging their tails, seemingly unharmed in the altercation
"The fact that they think this is a justified use of violence to break up a dog fight raises in my mind concerns about the fitness of the people handling the dogs," Harrison said.
However, Todd counters, "I think if you look at a dog attacking another dog, our animal control officers are trained through NOCA and HSUS and certainly you would not want to just step back and let one dog attack another dog. That is not the way they are trained, so there is an effort to separate the dogs."
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