President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee was once accused of stealing a Louisiana family’s dog named Tank. In 2005, Tank’s then owners, Steve and Dorreen Couture, put the Saint Bernard in a Louisiana animal shelter to weather Hurricane Katrina. The pooch, however, made his way to Florida amid the storm’s chaos and was ultimately adopted by Bondi, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Tank was one of thousands of dogs separated from their owners during Katrina. In 2006, Tank’s original owners tracked him down in the the Tampa Bay area, but Bondi reportedly did not want to return the adopted animal. A 16-month legal battle ensued during which the Florida prosecutor claimed Tank had been “severely neglected‚” riddled with heartworms, and abused while in the care of the Coutures. The family denied Bondi’s allegations, suing Bondi and demanding she return Tank. The two sides settled privately, with the dog returning to the Coutures’ custody. Despite the Coutures alleging Bondi “stole” their dog, she claimed throughout her successful campaign for Florida attorney general in 2010 that she had received a “tremendous amount of support from people and animal rights activists” over the legal battle.
