A U.S. Army veteran who rescued his 11-year-old dog from ISIS is now fighting to save her again after local authorities in Virginia “kidnapped” the animal.
Brendan Jones, a military veteran with 18 years of counterterrorism experience, rescued his dog Lucy from the grips of ISIS while deployed in the Middle East. Now, he’s building a “pressure campaign” to save Lucy from an animal shelter.
Around a month ago, Lucy was taken from the family’s rural property near Strasburg, Virginia, after a neighbor claimed that the dog threatened her and accused Jones of failing to comply with Virginia’s dangerous dog registry requirements.
You know who you are. On April 17, you saw me in my yard with my dog. You watched a freak mishap occur. You saw the collar slip over my dog’s head. You saw me immediately react, bringing my dog under control as quickly as I could manage without her leaving my property. You heard… pic.twitter.com/yaefu9pngK
— Brendan Jones 🇺🇸 (@jonesbrendanm) May 5, 2026
On social media, Jones called the incident a “freak mishap” and immediately brought the dog under control. He also said that Lucy never left his property.
“A passerby, a local attorney’s wife, escalated it to the authorities,” Jones and his wife Dolly wrote. “Now, at 11 years old, Lucy is unjustly confined in a shelter; confused, lonely, and awaiting death for doing nothing but barking — something all dogs do!”
Lucy, according to Jones, had been declared “dangerous” a year earlier after she nipped a passerby. He said the incident was out of character and occurred while the dog was recovering from surgery and still groggy.
She was drugged up post surgery. Not in her right mind. She was injured and in pain. She was wearing a boot and hobbling on three lets. She was wearing a cone and couldn’t see. In this vulnerable and confused state, a strange hand suddenly appeared next to her head. She felt… pic.twitter.com/IQaG4QujHv
— Brendan Jones 🇺🇸 (@jonesbrendanm) May 18, 2026
Dolly Jones, Brendan’s wife, said the couple has faced repeated conflicts with neighbors, including over a dozen police calls and multiple court appearances over animal-related noise complaints. Jones argued that the incident involving Lucy was “the weapon they needed to wield against us.”
“It’s been heartbreaking for everybody,” Dolly Jones said on “The Sean Hannity Show.” “When they actually came and kidnapped her off our property, the kids were outside playing, and the cops came up and removed her from the field, put her in the car. It’s been devastating.”
Brendan found and fell in love with Lucy in 2015 while “camping in the reddish moondust on the border between Jordan and Syria.”
“A young dog, pearl white in color, hung out with us at camp. We kind of adopted her and fed her leftovers. She appreciated having a full belly and a respite from the packs of wild dogs and angry Bedouins,” he said on social media. “We named her Lucy, which was appropriate, because it was similar to the Arabic word ‘Lulu,’ which means pearl.”
Then, he bribed a Jordanian officer to get Lucy veterinary care.
“First, I asked him straight up to take the dog to the vet in Amman. He laughed, spat on the ground, and said something disparaging about Americans and their love for filthy dogs. So I went for his Achilles heel — his love of Oakley sunglasses. I told him I would give him my Oakleys if he drove the dog 3.5 hours to Amman and delivered her to the vet. That got him. He said he would,” Jones said.
Following the birth of his newborn son, Jones said Lucy helped fill the void of his emotional pain overseas.
“I missed being a dad, I missed the dad life, and that’s not the headspace you want when you’re overseas in danger, when you have to be focused on the mission,” he told Hannity. “Lucy helped me get over that, because she filled that void that was missing. I would sit outside our gate after we adopted her and just pet her, play with her, feed her; it helped me overcome the pain that I felt.”
Lucy is still sitting in her cell at the pound, according to Jones, and the dog is unlikely to be released before Jones’ next court date, which is set for June 12.
Took Lucy treats. Couldn’t see her. One of the ladies took a video of her. She sent it to me along with the following message:
“Praying for a positive outcome soon for Lucy! 🙏”
These people are heroes. God bless them. But I want my dog back.#SaveLucy@Herb_Minstrel pic.twitter.com/htCgWM3CEo
— Brendan Jones 🇺🇸 (@jonesbrendanm) May 18, 2026
“We’re hoping that her life be bookended by miracles, one to get her here and one to save her from the Islamic State, and one to get her out of the hands of our own state,” Jones told Hannity.
The Jones family created an online petition calling for Lucy’s release.
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