The Garde family of Vineyard Haven appears to have given up on legal efforts to keep its three delinquent husky dogs, but has yet to comply with the town’s order to get rid of the dogs, or pay fines which now total more than $26,000.

The long-running dispute between the town and the family was due to have been aired again in Edgartown district court last week, but the family at the last minute dropped its action against an order of the selectmen.

And so the town this week is again writing to the family, renewing its demand that the three dogs, which have a long history of escapes and poultry-killing escapades, be removed from the town.

The selectmen originally issued the ban order on Oct. 13 last year. On March 17 this year, after failed appeals by the family to both the selectmen and the court, Tisbury town administrator John Bugbee wrote to Ken Garde, the family patriarch, giving the family 10 days to remove the three dogs, owned by him, one of his sons and a daughter.

“Each dog owner,” said that letter, “will be subject to a fine of $25 for violating a board of selectmen’s order. For each day that the dog continues to reside within the town lines of Tisbury, the dog owner will be subject to a fine in the amount of $100. The town is prepared to enforce these fines in the district court.”

The town said the fines would continue to be imposed until the family provided proof — including a verifiable new address for the dogs — that it had complied with the ban.

As of yesterday, the family had offered no such proof, and as of today, those fines have been accruing for 87 days, at a rate of $300 a day.

Despite the rapidly mounting costs, however, the Gardes continued legal efforts to escape the penalty. Two weeks after the town’s letter was sent, Mr. Garde filed a motion for a stay of execution against an order made in district court, requiring compliance with last October’s order of the selectmen.

He also filed a motion for relief which claimed the court order was “based upon evidence which was misrepresented to the town and based upon fraud.”

The motion gave no details of alleged fraud.

An initial hearing was delayed when the family claimed they had engaged legal counsel, who could not appear on the set date. Then they dropped the action, after the matter was rescheduled.

The question now becomes one of how the town will enforce its will, should the family continue to keep the dogs.

Yesterday, Mr. Bugbee said a new letter would be sent; however it had not yet been drafted.

The matter has been expensive all round. Apart from the $26,000-plus, and counting, amount owed by the family in fines, it presumably has at least some legal expenses. It also incurred unknown costs involved in trying a succession of increasingly elaborate means to stop the dogs from escaping. The town has spent more that $15,000 in legal fees and other costs.

The controversy about the dogs is also widely seen as having played a part in Mr. Garde’s defeat in the April town election as a long-serving member of the Tisbury board of health.