RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesBruce, a three-year-old Great Pyrenees and German Shepherd mix, was euthanized over several biting episodes
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A dog in California has been euthanized even though the case to save the pet reached the Supreme Court .
The legal battle over the fate of a three-year-old Great Pyrenees and German Shepherd mix named Bruce started in March following a series of biting episodes.
On four separate occasions from February 2024 to February 2026, Bruce attacked passersby, causing injuries including “severe disfiguring lacerations,” according to Ventura County Animal Services. In one instance on November 4, 2025, a woman was walking in her apartment complex when Bruce bit her on the forearm, requiring her to get surgery and skin grafts.
Animal Services said it had petitioned for Bruce to be declared vicious to “protect public safety,” and on March 26, a hearing officer agreed and ordered the dog to be euthanized.
After months of Bruce’s owners and the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center fighting for Bruce’s life in court, he was euthanized on Wednesday. Dan Bolton, a lawyer for the owners and rescue center, told The Independent he was “appalled” by Bruce’s euthanasia.
“We do not take the loss of an animal’s life lightly. We have compassion for Bruce and for those who care about him, just as we have compassion for those who were injured,” Animal Services said in a Tuesday statement . “Our responsibility is to follow the law, comply with court orders, and fulfill our mandate to protect the community.”
After Bruce’s owner, Claire Birgy, appealed the hearing officer’s determination that the dog was vicious, a Ventura County Superior Court judge affirmed in an April 15 ruling that Bruce was vicious and must be euthanized within a month.
But the issue was tied up in court until the United States District Court denied an emergency application seeking to block the Superior Court’s order, which allowed Animal Services to proceed with Bruce’s euthanasia.
The case moved all the way up to the Supreme Court, but not in time to save Bruce. A day after Bruce was euthanized, the Supreme Court denied an emergency application seeking to reinstate a temporary pause on the Superior Court’s order.
“At the time Bruce was euthanized, there was no court order in place preventing the County from complying with the Ventura County Superior Court’s April 15th order,” Animal Services said on Wednesday.
Attorney Bolton compared Bruce to an inmate on Death Row.
“Bruce was killed yesterday despite the pendency of our emergency application to the United States Supreme Court to preserve his life...If a death row inmate filed a similar stay, the State would never proceed to execute that person until the Court ruled on the stay,” Bolton told The Independent .
“The utter disregard for the judicial process in the United States Supreme Court, and shameful disrespect for Bruce’s life, is truly sickening,” the lawyer added.
The Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center grieved Bruce in a Facebook post Thursday.
“For months, SPARC fought to bring Bruce back under its protection. We sought legal relief. We supported emergency filings. We identified safe placement options. We offered to pay. We offered to assume responsibility,” the rescue center wrote.
“We are heartbroken for Bruce, for his family…and for every rescue worker who knows what it means to fight for a dog the system has already decided to give up on,” the post continued.
Winona Birgy-Krasnoff, the daughter of Bruce's owner, said the family was not proposing a solution where the public would ever be exposed to the dog.
"Our agenda was that Bruce got to live out his natural life in a way where he was protected from the public, and the public was protected from him,” Birgy-Krasnoff told ABC 7 .
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