Fangs Are Bared Over Md. Group's Katrina Dog Rescues

They were among the roughly 15,000 pets rescued in the Gulf Coast after the hurricane hit.

"We had two, three, four hundred animals being rescued every day," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States. "If we hadn't exported them, we would have had to suspend the operation."

Between 25 and 30 percent of the rescued pets were reunited with their owners, but most were adopted, Pacelle said.

Several ownership disputes have wound up in court, and their outcomes are likely to set precedents.

"There are many cases around the country, and they are going in many different ways," said Marie Riccio Wisner, who represents the Montgomery SPCA and its volunteers in the Louisiana case. Her clients did everything by the book and worked tirelessly to save endangered pets, Wisner said. "My main concern is that we on the Gulf Coast will be confronted with another hurricane. I don't think that we can bite the hand that feeds us."

Weeks after Sandy Marie and Coco Ree were adopted, Kathryn S. Bloomfield, a Shreveport attorney, contacted the Montgomery SPCA, saying that her client, Sumrall, wanted the dogs back. Bloomfield was told that they had a new home.

"We will not be returning the dogs to Ms. Sumrall, but wish her the best in her transition to a new life," Deserio wrote in a Dec. 17 e-mail, excerpts of which were posted on Bloomfield's blog -- Maddogs World -- under the headline: "Proof of the Callous Disregard of MCSPCA and Kim Deserio."

Bloomfield argued that Montgomery SPCA officials had not made an effort to find the dogs' owner before putting them up for adoption.

"It is again requested that you contact me immediately to arrange for the transport of Ms. Sumrall's pets home to her," Bloomfield wrote in a Dec. 28 e-mail to Deserio, according to court records. "Your continued refusal to do so makes no sense to us or to any of the agencies duly involved with the pet rescue efforts."

Days later, Bloomfield took a softer stance.

"Please contact me to make arrangements for the amicable return of Ms. Sumrall's pets to her," she wrote in a Jan. 7 e-mail to Dawn Wilcox, another society volunteer. "She misses them terribly and has just suffered terribly. Being denied her two beloved pets, Sandy Marie and Coco Ree, the latter of which was a wedding gift in honor of her wedding last year, simply is not the right thing to do."

Deserio and Wilcox allege in the defamation lawsuit that Bloomfield began lambasting Deserio and other Montgomery SPCA officials in online postings.