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For Mercy’s sake, animal lovers gather again


By SARAH BLASKOVICH, Community Editor

Self-proclaimed “animal nuts” gathered at Operation Kindness animal shelter Saturday, sniffling as they memorialized Mercy the pit-bull one last time.

The sky rumbled throughout the candlelight service. Dark clouds threatened rain, but shed only a few large drops while pink-cheeked animal lovers lit their candles for Mercy.

Zeus, a grey poodle, barked. Annie, a pit-bull and a victim of abuse like Mercy, yelped during the moment of silence. Her back leg, constantly twitching from when she was thrown from a second-story balcony earlier this year, shuddered.

“Mercy died, but her death won’t be in vain if we all pledge do to all we can to stop animal abuse,” said Jonnie England, executive director of Operation Kindness in Carrollton.

Mercy’s owner, DaShawn Brown, was found guilty of a third-degree felony Sept. 28 for burning his dog on Good Friday in April 2006. Mercy died 10 days later, after she lost more than half of her skin from surgeries to try to save her, said surgical veterinarian Dr. Katherine Wells.

Photographs show that the most severe burns are near Mercy’s genitals. Prosecutors in the case contend that Brown burned her intentionally because she wouldn’t mate. Mercy was in heat when she arrived to Operation Kindness in April 2006, England said.

Mercy has been a frequent face on nightly news programs, in newspapers and even on T-shirts of pet lovers. Her curious face, earless after numerous surgeries tried to fix her burned extremities, have touched people as far as Denmark and Sweden, according to England. One woman in Florida e-mailed England a petition with 18,000 names of people who hoped Mercy’s owner received the “stiffest punishment possible” before the verdict was set, she said.

As attendees on Saturday remembered the injured dog, a song written for Mercy was played over the shelter’s speakers. The woman who wrote and recorded the song is from the United Kingdom and heard about Mercy through news stories posted on the Internet, England said.

The candlelight service was scheduled to provide closure for those people who followed Mercy’s trial. It came just a week after the Dallas County jury gave Brown his sentence.

Brown was sentenced to four years in jail for animal cruelty and will be fined $5,000. England said she wished his sentence was longer.

“We were disappointed that it was only for four years,” she said. “It took Mercy 10 days to die. We were asking for one year for every day that it took for her to die.”

Brown will serve a mandatory two years in a state penitentiary before being eligible for parole, according to records from the Dallas County Criminal Courts, District 7. David Alex, one of the assistant district attorneys prosecuting the case, encouraged attendees at the candlelight ceremony not to forget about Mercy’s story when Brown is up for parole.



“I think you all have a very strong voice,” he said. “I would encourage anyone … to talk to the parole board in two years.”

Mercy’s story

Mercy was first brought to Operation Kindness April 14, 2006, by Austin Holt, a man who lived in Brown’s apartment complex and had seen Mercy — then called Brandy — hiding after she had been burned.

When Mercy arrived to the no-kill shelter, she walked in herself. But her injuries were very severe, Wells said, and she continued to get sicker. There were days when she hardly walked at all, she said.

“It’s misleading when she’s seen trotting out of that first clinic,” Wells said, referring to some news reports. “If anybody ever saw the pictures as it unfolded … she got very sick. Her body became overwhelmed with infection.”

Mercy was first treated by Dr. Troy Lindsay, who worked at Brookhaven Animal Clinic in Addison at the time, England said. Mercy went in for surgery a few days later, and continued to get more sick.

Most of her body was wrapped in bandages, said Wells, who treated her at Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center. Mercy couldn’t lie down unless she was sedated, and she was given “massive amounts” of antibiotics and fluids, England said.

When Mercy died 10 days after she was brought to Operation Kindness, many vets and volunteers took it personally.

“On some level, it feels as if she was mine,” England said. “I knew there were so many people around the world who were praying for her. My heart really thought she was going to make it.”

Wells said she, too, got attached to Mercy. As a surgeon, she generally doesn’t get to develop a relationship with the animals she treats, she said. Mercy was different.

“We fix a broken bone, they go away, and we may never see then again,” she said. “We don’t have very many cases that linger. It was pretty emotional.”

The case for animal abuse

Mercy’s grave — there are actually two — were dotted with lit candles Saturday night. So crammed were the small orange flames around Mercy’s grave that candles lined an adjacent grave for an animal named Honey.

Participants cheered when Alex, one of the attorneys, spoke about the case. Operation Kindness is currently prosecuting several other court cases for animal abuse.

There’s Angel, the dog whose owner wrapped wire around its muzzle. Spike was found tied to railroad tracks and abandoned by his owner. There was a puppy whose hindquarters were dipped in scalding water and a kitten thrown out of a window on a Dallas freeway.

“We’ve had horrible cases of cruelty through neglect,” England said. “But in many ways, we’ve not seen anything like (Mercy’s case). This was intentional torture.”

The animal lovers hugged and cried Saturday night. Some doted on Annie the pit-bull, who is a reminder that some abused animals do survive.

“This case has broken my heart from day one,” said Donna Maynard, called the “animal angel” by her coworkers at the Cooper Fitness Center. “(Mercy’s story) feeds my need to be with animals.”

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