Family once said Pam Bondi ‘stole’ dog after Hurricane Katrina. We broke down the details

In February 2026, after The Atlantic magazine published an in-depth feature about U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi, a claim (archived) circulated online that Bondi once stole a dog from a Hurricane Katrina survivor who lost their parents in a murder-suicide and then sued the dog’s owners when they attempted to get it back. 

For example, the Facebook page Occupy Democrats wrote:

BREAKING: Pam Bondi once tried to steal a dog from an orphan hurricane victim and then sued his grandparents when they tried to get it back!

[…]

Bondi adopted a dog from a shelter in 2005, Master Tank, who had been lost after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. But Master Tank belonged to the four-year-old grandson of Steve and Dorreen Couture, who was recovering from losing his parents in a murder-suicide and was left homeless by the hurricane. 

Versions of the claim circulated on X, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky, while Snopes readers also contacted us seeking the truth behind the rumor.

According to court records from Pinellas County, near Tampa, Florida, Steven and Dorreen Couture from Louisiana sued Bondi in 2006 after they claimed she refused to return their dog. The couple reportedly lost their home in Hurricane Katrina and had to give their two dogs to a local shelter. By the time they located the pets to take them to their new home, an animal rescue in Florida had adopted both animals out. 

Bondi adopted one of these dogs, a St. Bernard named Master Tank, and initially refused to give him back to the Coutures. According to court records, the resulting lawsuit settled out of court and Bondi and another woman returned the pets to the Louisiana family in 2007. 

The court records show Bondi did not sue the Coutures and never faced criminal charges in relation to her adoption of Master Tank.

Since 2006, numerous news media outlets, including The Atlantic, have reported that the owners’ grandchildren lost their parents to murder-suicide. Obituaries also show that both parents died on the same day. However, it was not possible to independently verify whether the couple died in a murder-suicide. Snopes contacted The Atlantic and the relevant coroner in Louisiana for confirmation.

We also reached out to Bondi for more information about the court case. We await replies to our queries.

Therefore, we’ve rated this claim a mixture of true, false and undetermined elements.

Coutures gave dogs up after Hurricane Katrina

The Ocala Star-Banner newspaper in Florida reported that Steven Couture said he handed over two dogs — a St. Bernard named Master Tank and a shepherd mix named Nila — over to a temporary rescue in St. Bernard Parish, near New Orleans, in September 2005 with the understanding they would hold them “for at least six months” for him. Instead, the next month, Bondi adopted Master Tank and another Florida woman named Rhonda Rineker adopted Nila from a rescue in Pinellas County, according to the report.

The Coutures reportedly tracked Master Tank and Nila to the Tampa Bay area in January 2006 after learning they were no longer in Louisiana.

On June 27, 2006, days before the Coutures filed a lawsuit against Bondi, Rineker and the Humane Society of Pinellas County, Steven Couture made a public plea to Bondi and Rineker to “please give me my dogs back,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The paper reported: “Couture, with cameras pointing at him, said Tuesday he is a carpenter who is neither wealthy nor poor. He said his two grandchildren have lost their parents and their home in the past several years.”

Despite that plea, a court battle followed before the parties settled out of court on Aug. 30, 2007, according to court records. The terms of the agreement reportedly remained confidential but ultimately meant Bondi and Rineker returned Master Tank and Nila to the Coutures that month.

Bondi’s Florida AG campaign marred by dog lawsuit

During the lawsuit over Master Tank and Nila, Bondi reportedly fought to keep the St. Bernard, alleging that he was dying from heartworms and that the Coutures had neglected him even before the storm. At one point in the proceedings, Bondi reportedly claimed the dog she had adopted was not Master Tank — meaning the Coutures could not claim him. The judge in the case ruled that the dog Bondi adopted was, in fact, Master Tank.

The eventual return of the dogs only temporarily eased relations between the Coutures and Bondi.

In late 2010, as Bondi ran for Florida attorney general, Dorreen Couture appeared in a two-minute campaign ad (archived) for the Florida Democratic Party where she recounted the story about Bondi and Master Tank. Couture said in the ad that Bondi was “a woman that will use her power to get what she wants in the legal system just to destroy a family. Because that’s what she was doing, she was destroying us.”

Couture also reportedly told the Tampa Bay Times that Bondi had promised to supply Master Tank with food and medicine for the rest of his life but failed to do so. According to the report, in September 2010 she said Bondi “did for the first few months. After that, she was supposed to have her first visitation that September and she canceled.”

In that same article, Bondi reportedly said she had received “a tremendous amount of support from people and animal rights activists, and no criticism at all” after the Master Tank lawsuit and did not expect the Democratic candidate for attorney general of Florida to bring the topic up “at all” during the campaign.

In sum …

Though Dorreen Couture claimed in the September 2010 article that Bondi “stole” her dog, Bondi never faced criminal charges in relation to her adoption of Master Tank. It was unclear whether Bondi knew that owners might come looking for Master Tank when she adopted him. 

Numerous news media outlets have reported that Dorreen and Steven Couture looked after their grandchildren because their parents died in a murder-suicide before Hurricane Katrina hit. According to online obituaries, Steven Michael Couture, the son of Steven Couture, died on Oct. 3, 2004. His fiancée, Bambi Beth Frilot, died the same day. Snopes reached out to the coroner in the couple’s home of St. Bernard Parish to confirm their causes of death and await a reply.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Bondi adopted a new St. Bernard puppy in 2008. She last posted (archived) about that dog, Luke, on her Instagram page on Christmas Eve 2016. Master Tank was reportedly 10 years old in 2010.

Sources