The incident, which involved a rat terrier in the jaws of a pit bull, prompted cars to pull over on Mammoth Road and drivers to try to separate the dogs. The rat terrier, Sammy, suffered abrasions and bruises to its neck.
“It's insulting to the victims,” Lucinda Boutin said of the fine. “It does nothing to deter someone who has a vicious dog in their home.”
Boutin said Sammy will be OK, but “it's been a very rough road for me.”
The owner of the pit bull, Dorothy Mahoney, acknowledged paying the $100 fine.
“He (Animal Control Officer Neal Vogler) said he had to give me the ticket because in the city of Manchester if any dog bites any other dog, it's a fine,” Mahoney said.
Earlier this week, Boutin approached aldermen and Mayor Ted Gatsas and asked them to review city ordinances and procedures dealing with dog attacks.
She said pit bulls and pit bull mixes are responsible for the vast majority of dog attacks in the country.
“This is a safety concern,” Boutin said.
Her alderman, Bill Shea of Ward 7, has asked the Committee on Public Safety to review city regulations regarding dogs. He said he thinks aldermen are ready to consider changes.
Boutin has said aldermen should consider increasing first-time fines for a vicious dog to $500, requiring a muzzle for vicious dogs when they are outside, and implementing a public database to track vicious dogs.
The city's current ordinance establishes a maximum fine of $100 for a vicious dog attack. A second offense within the next 12 months entails a $400 fine, plus a court hearing to determine if the dog should be removed from the owner's custody.
The two dog owners live two houses apart on Mammoth Road.
“We in the Chase Houses on Mammoth Road live in fear every day now,” Boutin wrote in an email to Alderman Dan O'Neil. “This is terrorism minus the political agenda.”
At the request of the New Hampshire Union Leader, police released reports about the incident between the two dogs. It corroborates previous statements of Boutin and Mahoney to the media.
However, Boutin's husband told Vogler that their rat terrier went beyond the electric dog fence that day because the fence was set at half-intensity.
There were other dogs in a neighbor's yard that the dog wanted to play with, he told police.
(The Union Leader - June 7, 2012)
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