Dogged judge wants canines in Lee County court to calm kids

Kadie lived the first four years of her life in a cage. Her feet didn't touch the ground.

After two years of rehabilitation, 12-year-old Kadie wants to help other victims of neglect and abuse.

Kadie, a goldendoodle, could be one of several dogs to help calm children appearing in Lee County dependency court after a push by Circuit Judge Robert Branning.

The program would entail dogs helping children not inside the courtroom but in the wings while attorneys pepper them with questions about sometimes tragic experiences.

"It's very visceral, very emotional," Branning said Tuesday.

Branning runs dependency court, which deals with cases of kids who were abandoned, abused, or neglected.

He said that his job is to be there for children, so it only makes sense he would do everything he could to help them, which includes making the court experience less stressful.

"My entire compass is to seek the best interest of the children," he said. "Their entire world has been turned upside down."

The only thing left is for Chief Judge Michael McHugh to sign off on the proposed pooch program. The proposal will be written by Branning and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southwest Florida, which certifies the dogs as therapy animals and connects their owners with the courts.

Branning said this has been in the works for more than six months with the advocacy group, which has the dogs spend hour sessions with abused children at their center.

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Courtrooms in Polk, Wakulla and Leon counties have used dogs in similar or more extensive ways and noted how they soothe kids enough to give vital testimonies.

When asked if dogs could ever be in Lee's courtrooms, Branning said: "Yes ... This is the first step in that."

But he admitted there could be issues of fairness and due process with jury's being swayed by the presence of a precious pooch, which are problems he doesn't have to deal with in his non-jury dependency court.

Court pet therapy programs around the state talk about how children are able to connect with the dogs who have had a rougher life.

JayL Solomon still remembers when she paid $1,000 for Kadie, who she thought was a prime breeding dog: "She was about dead ... full of every kind of parasite."

Solomon carries Kadie, covered in white fluff, to cheer up Hospice patients and CROW — Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife — where she has made friends with Sheldon the rescue turtle and Sneezy the tailless possum.

And it's not just Kadie.

Monty, a mocha pit bull and Labrador mix, spent eight or nine months in the shelter system before Jeremy Spink rescued him from euthanization.

Spink of Fort Myers said that 86-pound Monty also educates children about pit bulls.

"It was me trying to change people's perceptions about big dogs ... and that not all pit bulls are mean," he said.

Spink said Monty is happy being in a hospital or being mobbed by 30 school students, but many of the dependency court children will be able to connect with Monty's story of rejection.

"Some kids don't have anybody or anything on their side, and that the dog came from nothing means a lot," he said.