After two years in isolation, Briccs is finally FREE!!

Wolfdog: Briccs

BRICCS IS FINALLY FREE!!

After more than two long, brutal years (over half of her life) spent locked away in a cold, concrete cell, BRICCS HAS BEEN FOUND NOT GUILTY!

On October 29th, 2025, a jury unanimously declared what her owner and everyone who truly knew this wolf dog already knew from the very beginning:

Briccs was innocent.

She did not commit the brutal attack she was accused of back in 2023.

Two days of testimony.

Two years of heartbreak.

One innocent life nearly destroyed by fear and false accusation.

But finally… justice howled back.

Though her owner is overjoyed beyond words, relief is tangled with heartache, because Briccs’ fight isn’t over yet.

After so long in isolation, she must now learn to feel safe again… to trust again… to be a companion again.

Her owner is ready for that uphill climb and determined to give her the life she always deserved.

This isn’t just a win for one dog and her family.

It’s a win for truth.

For compassion.

For every innocent soul ever caged by fear and ignorance.

Welcome home, Briccs.

You were always innocent.

Now the world finally knows it.

During the trial, some very interesting facts came to light.

Here’s the story:

Two years ago, a young woman was jogging down a quiet Cleveland street when a dog came charging out of a nearby yard and brutally attacked her.

It was the middle of the day with no one else around.

The attack was vicious.

Her calf was torn to the bone, muscle shredded, her life forever changed in an instant.

Hearing her screams, Briccs’ owner’s brother, Jesse, rushed out of his home to help the woman.

He fought the dog with everything he had, doing whatever it took to pull it off her.

When the attack was finally over, he dragged the dog by its collar into his own fenced yard… not because it was his, but because he didn’t know what else to do.

Of course, the dog needed to be contained while he went back to save the woman’s life.

According to Jesse, the attacking dog wasn’t Briccs at all!

It was his neighbor’s Rottweiler!

But in the fog of trauma, the bleeding woman only remembered that the man seemed to “know” the dog, and that he’d dragged it into his yard.

When she woke days later, medicated and in agony, she told investigators that she believed the dog belonged to the man who helped her.

So when animal control officers drove past his home a week later and saw Briccs in the yard, they took a photo and showed it to the victim.

Still dazed and recovering from surgeries, she said she thought that was the dog.

That one statement sealed Briccs’ fate.

When the officers arrived to “take pictures,” Briccs’ owner, DeCardo, complied fully, unaware that his cooperation would become a trap.

After the photos were done, the animal control officers told him they’d be taking her “for quarantine.”

They couldn’t even get her into the van themselves because Briccs was too clever, bracing her legs against the crate, so her trusting owner helped lift her in, believing she’d be home in a few days.

She never came home.

Weeks later, the neighbor’s house (the one who owned the Rottweiler) burned down.

After the first, the neighbor vanished and his dog was never found.

Nor was he ever charged.

Nor ever proven innocent… or guilty.

Meanwhile, Briccs sat in a concrete cell.

Days turned into months.

Months into years.

Without money for an attorney, DeCardo was left to fend for himself.

Public defenders came and went (five in total) too busy to fight for the truth.

Three judges recused themselves.

The case crawled forward while Briccs languished, alone and forgotten.

After all, she was a “wolfdog.”

That’s all they needed to hear.

But her owner refused to give up.

For two long years, he and his brother scraped together every dollar they could.

Finally, they hired a real attorney who listened.

One who cared.

And that lawyer unraveled the entire lie.

In court, DeCardo’s lawyer got the attack victim to admit she had been heavily drugged on pain medication when she identified Briccs from the photo.

He exposed the prosecutor’s false claims, even showing that she had confused Briccs’ owner with another man entirely, using another person’s criminal record against him in front of the jury.

And when all the truth was finally laid bare, the jury didn’t hesitate.

A unanimous NOT GUILTY verdict!

Justice at last!

Briccs’ owner wept in relief.

His family cried.

After two long years of injustice, Briccs was finally exonerated and proven innocent of a crime she never committed.

But her story isn’t over yet.

Even though her trial was a few weeks ago, Briccs still waits behind those bars, her mind shaped by solitude, her spirit scarred by two years in concrete confinement.

Her family is preparing for the delicate road ahead… to bring her home, to heal her heart, and to teach her once again what love feels like.

This was more than a trial.

It was a battle between fear and truth.

And this time… truth won.

Unfortunately, this story could have turned out so differently.

Literally, hundreds of thousands of wolf dogs just like Briccs are abandoned, confiscated, or euthanized every year.

I receive at least one or two phone calls a week from people asking me if we sell wolf dogs.

And its the same story every time.

“No, the Dire Wolf Project doesn’t have any wolf content in our dogs.”

“If you have to have a dog with wolf content, you won’t find it here.”

“Oh, okay” I hear.

Then, click.

Briccs is one of the lucky ones… if it’s lucky to have been stuck in isolated confinement for two years.

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Just like yesterday’s article revealed about the Puppy Protection Act of 2025, laws can be created that protect both people and wolf dogs from the serious repercussions surrounding this tragic wolf dog trend.  

And the Dire Wolf Project is committed to sharing the truth behind these scandalous miscarriages of justice.  

That is one of the reasons we choose to breed 100% domesticated dogs, while chasing that wild look.

And unlike wolf dogs, it takes a great deal of time and patience to change the outward appearance of a 100% domesticated dog back to the wild type.

It doesn’t come easy at all.

And it requires the Dire Wolf Project to constantly bring in new cross dogs to capture wild-type appearance traits that we don’t have or have lost while breeding for health and temperament first.

Chisel is one such dog.

He carries within him the quiet strength, the measured presence, and the deep emotional awareness that we love about our breed.

But because he doesn’t look like a dire wolf and happens to be a first generation Lab/Shepherd crossbreed brought in to bring genetic diversity, bright yellow eyes, dominant black coat coloring, and more confidence, he is left behind when its time for him to find his forever home.

Yet unlike the faceless numbers of wolf dogs lingering in overcrowded rescues, Chisel is alive, breathing, waiting for the family who will recognize his worth and cherish his legacy.

No aggression, dominance, independence, or territorial possession that you might find from a random cross… or even a wolf dog.

If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to walk beside a creature who embodies the lessons of centuries, who moves through the world with calm assurance and a heart that mirrors your own, you can meet him today.

Learn more about Chisel and the life he’s waiting to share:

https://direwolfproject.com/pedigree/7394/

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.