MASSACHUSETTS -- A dog that [attacked[ a terrified passerby on the bike path and another that jumped its fence to attack a passing mail carrier have been given second and third chances, respectively.
The Board of Selectmen dealt with two dog hearings at their Monday meeting, ordering the owners to exercise better control in both cases. Both involved pit bull / labrador retriever mixes.
The first dog attacked a woman on the Canalside Rail Trail bicycle path in Turners Falls.
Frances Garanin said she was walking on the path when she saw Joseph Dobias and his dogs.
Garanin said one dog jumped up, bit her hand and knocked her down as she passed. Police Chief Charles “Chip” Dodge III said police noted a cut to her palm and a couple of punctures in her right hand.
Dobias said he was kneeling to untangle one of his two dogs from its leash before pulling them to the side, and Garanin stepped forward. The male dog barked, causing Garanin to begin screaming and waving her arms, and the dog lunged and bit her hand. Dobias said Garanin wasn’t knocked down.
Dobias said he was sorry it happened, but he believed the dog was reacting to protect him as he was in a vulnerable position on his knees and Garanin’s reaction exacerbated the situation.
Dobias said he had already enrolled the dog, Bailey, in an obedience class and purchased a muzzle although he had not yet used it.
On Selectman Mark Fairbrother’s motion, selectmen ordered Dobias to muzzle his dog and submit evidence of completion of training, with the understanding the dog will be put down if it bites again.
Fairbrother said he was tempted to order Dobias to keep the dog off the bike path, which runs by his house, but wouldn’t touch the issue because he might appear to have a conflict of interest. Garanin had earlier listed Gordon Fairbrother, his father, among bike path users she said see Bailey as aggressive.
The second dog, a female residing on Coolidge Avenue, reportedly attacked two mailmen after a hearing earlier this year at which the board ordered the owner to install fences sufficient to keep the dog in after reports that it is was loose and not always friendly.
Dodge said that a week after the hearing, at which he considered the board lenient in its ruling, the dog startled a mail carrier at the door. The man fell down, hurting his thumb, and the dog attacked him until it was restrained by someone in the house, Dodge said. The man was evidently not hurt beyond the thumb injury.
The second incident occurred in September, when the dog jumped the fence and attacked a mail carrier on the opposite side of the street, Dodge said. Dodge said the man sustained puncture wounds to his hands fighting off the attack. Dodge said neither carrier had pressed charges but the postmaster was concerned, in particular because the home is in the neighborhood of the middle/high school.
Dodge and the animal control officer requested the dog be put down. “We were here before, it has escalated, the dog has progressed to biting people now,” Dodge said.
Animal Control Officer Calin Giurgiu said he has had to chase the dog many times and it is sometimes friendly and sometimes charges, which he knows how to handle. “But if she charged a little child, that child would have no chance,” Giurgiu said.
Owner Jody Rattigan said the dog is friendly to most people but hates men in uniform, which she said stemmed from when the dog escaped as a puppy and was brought back by the mail carrier it later jumped the fence to bite. Rattigan said she had repaired the gate to the existing fence after the first hearing but has now priced a taller fence.
Fairbrother made a motion to put it down after the 10-day appeal period, but withdrew it after Chairman Christopher Boutwell said he was not in favor.
Selectmen unanimously supported Fairbrother’s second motion: that the owner take whatever steps necessary to keep the dog fenced within the yard, with the dog to be put down if it escapes once, leaving the details up to the owner. “From right now, tonight, if the dog gets out it’s gone. Period,” Fairbrother said.
(Recorder - October 12, 2014)
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