Selectmen unanimously decided Monday night that three dogs owned by Donna Mason of Chestnut Street were a nuisance based on vicious disposition and required that they be removed from the town within 30 days.
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| Maggie Adler said the dogs broke into her home and killed her cat. |
The town has compiled more than 100 pages of complaints and testimony against the dogs for being off leash, excessive barking and being vicious.
The dogs are a pit bull named Chuck, a pug mix named Fooey and a German Shepherd mix named Princess.
Mason is allowed to keep her two other dogs, Addy, a bloodhound, and Egg Roll, a Shar Pei.
"My dogs are like my kids," Mason said. "Chuckie has always been tied up, and yes, Princess growls and barks, but I also blame the kids because they taught her to do that when she was a puppy because they thought it was cute. Fooey is the most lovable dog. I wanted to bring him here tonight, but I was advised not to."
Mason cried as the Selectmen made the motion to remove the three dogs into care, and she left the meeting room just before the motion was approved.
Most recently, a cat owned by Margaret Adler was killed by one of Mason's dogs after it broke through the locked screen door of Adler's house, according to her testimony.
"On July 4 and 5, I went to Tanglewood. When I leave my cats alone in the house, I will sometimes leave the glass door open," Adler said.
When she returned home on July 5, she discovered a pit bull in her house along with another dog, both of which belonged to Mason, she said.
Mason admitted it was her dogs that caused the damage and killed the cat but said it was a one-time occurrence because the dogs had gotten away from her during a walk. The dogs had run away while still on a leash; Mason said she was searching for them for two days.
"Yes, he got away from me. I'm not as strong as I used to be," Mason said. "I feel really bad."
But despite Mason's insistence that it was an isolated incident, multiple neighbors testified that the dogs have been a nuisance for a long time.
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| Donna Mason showed the Selectmen the leash she says she uses when walking her pit bull, Chuck, that she admits she was unable to control. |
Ellen Bayliss recalled two incidents in which the dogs had chased her family members. On July 30, one of Mason's five dogs chased Bayliss' son while he was riding a bicycle down the street and the next day her daughter-in-law was chased while jogging.
"I'm never sure if they are safe," neighbor Sarah Madden said. "It's terrifying."
Neighbor Tony Menkal said his son and daughter were also chased by the dogs. All of the complainants, about seven neighbors, said the dogs are often roaming the streets freely.
"They didn't get bitten but they were scared," Menkal said. "They were really, really scared. It has gotten out of hand."
"I am sorry about what happened to Maggy's cat. I don't feel bad about people going through the neighborhood saying things," she said. "Right now I feel like I'm living in a goldfish bowl."
Tree Warden Robert E. McCarthy Jr., a long-time resident of Chestnut Street, said the problem arose when Mason moved back into her mother's house on Chestnut Street with 10 dogs.
"We have all tried to put up with it so it wasn't too much of an issue" he said.
He said that this is a sad day for Chestnut Street, and it's really a shame it had to come down to this point, but a decision had to be made.
"The issue here is someone in a residential neighborhood has multiple dogs barking more than they should, and doesn't keep them under control, which is a threat to other people and the neighborhood," he said.
Mason contended that some of the complaints were about dogs that she no longer owns and that the five dogs she currently owns are not nuisances. She has owned a total of 17 different dogs.
"None of my dogs have ever bit anyone," Mason said. "Chucky has never been loose. He has never been an issue."
The board, however, said the description of each dog and the compiled reports from the animal control officer that cites the dogs by name was enough proof that three of the dogs were public nuisances.
[Clearly she is a liar. Animal Control has been to her home numerous times and I don't know why they would refer to a pit bull named Chuck as one of the problem dogs if it were a completely different dog, as she insists. However, I completely disagree with them shoving THEIR problem dogs onto other communities. I don't want her damn aggressive dogs living next door to me!
Like I've said before, if I was ever attacked by one of these so-called 'banned' dogs, I would sue the city/county that ordered the dog removed from their juridsiction. After all, they can't claim ignorance, as most owners do. They banned that dog from their area b/c of its aggressive behavior. That makes them, IMHO, liable for whatever the dog does.]
"It's so far beyond reasonable that we have no choice," Selectman Thomas Costley said.
(North Adams Transcript - Sept 28, 2011)
