NONFICTION - Nov. 17, 1991

BANDIT: Dossier of a Dangerous Dog by Vicki Hearne (HarperCollins: $21.95; 320 pp . ). Vicki Hearne made her name as a writer with “Adam’s Task: Calling Animals by Name,” in which she displayed tremendous sympathy with and understanding of dogs, horses and other creatures she works with as an animal trainer. This volume is very different, recounting Hearne’s attempts to rescue from Connecticut authorities a dog they misidentify in both breed and temperament; Bandit is neither pit bull nor vicious. “Bandit” simply doesn’t work as a book, however, for Hearne is intemperate--her riff on witless “cops” is an embarrassment--and is more likely to ridicule competing points of view than explore them. To make matters worse, “Bandit” has no apparent organization; although Hearne discusses many of the disciplines bearing on the dog’s case--law, philosophy, social justice and so on--her approach is so haphazard that the more one reads, the less relevant they seem. “Bandit,” in the end, seems more like a collection of notes than a worked-out book.