Page 11 - MIN JUS AUG 03, 2015

Judge to rule in case of
dog brought from Aruba
to North Attleboro
ARUBA TRAVELLER - Monday, August 3 2015 7LOCAL
ATTLEBORO - An Attleboro District Court judge who heard
an international dispute over a mixed-breed dog brought to North
Attleboro from a beach in Aruba has taken the case under advise-
ment.
Judge Edmund Mathers did not say when he would rule on the
case.
The two-day civil trial ended Friday with conflicting testimony
concerning the physical condition of the dog, which the plaintiffs
say was kidnapped and the defendants say was a stray saved from
certain death.
In this case, the physical condition when the dog was found in Aru-
ba and ownership of the dog are not the only bones of contention.
The two sides call the dog by different names.
The plaintiffs, Cornelia Hajdinyak and Howard Tromp, of Aruba,
call it “Whitey.” The defendants, Lisa and Dan O’Connell of North
Attleboro, call it “Coco.”
Hajdinyak testified marks on the dog were scars from surgery after
it was struck by a car in Aruba a year ago. Lisa O’Connell testified
veterinarians who treated the dog never found surgical scars.
Hajdinyak maintained she returned to Aruba from her home in
Switzerland last fall and was told the dog was lost, before learning
from an Animal Relief Foundation volunteer in Aruba that the dog
was flown to the United States.
O’Connell says she and her husband found the dog tick-infested,
thirsty, hungry and with no identification on the beach before
taking it to a veterinarian on the island.
They adopted the dog after being told it would likely be killed
because Aruba has a stray dog problem, O’Connell maintained.
Under cross-examination Friday, O’Connell acknowledged that
veterinarian reports the plaintiffs’ lawyer Keith Langer of Wren-
tham showed her did not mention the dog was malnourished or
dehydrated. But she later explained the exam was not compre-
hensive.
Hajdinyak testified again Friday that she offered in an email to
pay all O’Connell’s expenses and would buy her another rescue
dog if she returned her dog.
“She told me not to contact her anymore and she refused to give
me my dog back,” Hajdinyak testified.
O’Connell’s lawyer, Alfred Gray of Boston, argued that the plain-
tiffs have not established they even owned the dog, and called an
ownership agreement they presented as evidence “bogus.”
He told the judge that even if he finds they owned the dog, evidence
and testimony indicates they “relinquished” ownership of it.
“At this point,” he said, “Coco is in a safe environment. She is
happy. She is loved.”
Langer said the ownership agreement was proper, and argued that
the so-called adoption of the dog was improper. He argued the
volunteer who testified did not understand the law in Aruba and
relied on information about it in a tourist newspaper.
He said the case is not as complex as the defendants are making
it out to be, calling it a simple property case.
“The defendant willfully and repeatedly refused to turn over
Whitey to her true owners,” Langer argued.