VERMONT -- A pit bull-mix blamed for a bloody rampage that crippled a cat and injured a small dog on Robar Road earlier this month was surrendered by its owner on Tuesday and will be given one last chance to redeem itself.
Thanks to a compromise reached near the end of an hourlong hearing before the Select Board on Monday night, Chris Skinner agreed to turn his dog, “Bruno,” over to Williamstown-based Random Rescue. The board, in turn, relented on its demand that the dog either be “put down” or moved out of town.
Both options are still squarely on the table thanks to Sam Punchar, the town’s animal control officer, who owns Random Rescue on Casino Road.
On a night when he surely needed one, Punchar was an impartial character witness for Bruno — a dog she described as “polite … gentle” and resting in its driveway shortly after she was called by a neighbor who claimed to have shot the animal after breaking up a lopsided dogfight outside his Robar Road home.
The call, which came from Robert “Rex” Thompson, was the second complaint Punchar received about a free-roaming brown pit bull in the span of about an hour on Sunday, April 12. The first call came from Robar Road resident Melissa Lee, whose cat, “Bianca,” was mauled by a dog fitting Bruno’s description on her front porch earlier that morning.
Thompson, Lee, Skinner and Punchar were among those who testified during an informal hearing that focused on what to do with a pit bull that the Select Board was told fatally injured Thompson’s 14-year-old Shih Tzu in a belatedly-reported incident last summer and this month had bitten two dogs and a cat on his road.
For what it was worth, Punchar said she didn’t get a vicious vibe from a dog that appears to peacefully co-exist with cats and a bird that is allowed to fly around a Robar Road home owned by Skinner’s mother.
“I really liked him,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “He was a really nice dog to me.”
However, Punchar stressed her interaction with Bruno — while “positive” — was limited and she wouldn’t think twice about euthanizing him if he fails the thorough “temperament evaluation” she voluntarily proposed and offered to videotape for the board.
“If I felt at all that Bruno was a danger … I would be the first one to put (him) down,” she said. “I don’t place dogs that I feel are dangerous, nor do I advocate for dogs that I feel are dangerous.”
Punchar’s assurance provided board members the comfort level they were looking for in permitting the dog to remain both alive and in town for the time being.
It also seemed to satisfy Thompson and Lee, who insisted the dog responsible for back-to-back attacks this month was not being responsibly cared for and represented a threat to their rural neighborhood. Putting the dog in the care of a trained professional was an acceptable outcome in their view.
Even Skinner, who quietly questioned whether his dog had done all it was accused of, eagerly accepted the lifeline offered by Punchar while agreeing to pay the mounting vet bills associated with the recent attacks.
That will be an expensive proposition, given the fact that Lee has already invested nearly $1,200 in medical care for her cat, adding that she feared those costs could climb by another $2,000 if the animal’s severely fractured leg has to be amputated.
Thompson spent roughly $153 on emergency care for his Shih Tzu, “Ralphie,” on the day he claims Skinner’s pit bull attacked. Thompson said he shot at — and initially believed he hit — the aggressive dog that killed his longtime pet last year.
The earlier incident was eventually reported to Punchar’s predecessor, but no action was taken because the report occurred well after the 48-hour period specified in the town ordinance.
Thompson said he shot his own dog, offered to shoot Skinner’s, and didn’t initially report the incident because Skinner promised to have the dog put down.
By all accounts that didn’t happen.
Instead, the dog was relocated, then eventually returned to Robar Road and has since been the subject of repeated, though unverifiable, complaints by Thompson for running at large.
In a neighborhood with children, Thompson said that was not acceptable, and told the board Skinner had demonstrated he can not responsibly care for his pet.
“I know several pit bull owners. I love animals. I don’t want to see this dog put away … I want to see this dog put somewhere where someone responsible can take care of (it),” he said.
Board members also heard from Robar Road resident Edward Blow, who claimed Skinner’s dog attacked his three-year-old boxer, “Duke,” on his front porch in early April while he was waiting with his daughter for her school bus.
According to Blow, his dog sustained a “three-inch laceration,” and his daughter is scared to play outside.
“I love dogs,” he said. “It’s not my intention to see any good dog put down, but when stuff like this happens around my daughter it makes me a little upset.”
Skinner said he was “irritated,” but was never visibly angry, and at one point appeared resigned to euthanizing his dog — a mix between a pit pull and a chocolate Labrador retriever.
“If you guys say … to put my dog down, that’s what it is,” he said.
Chairman Larry Hebert told Skinner that might be the best course of action given his neighbors’ reaction to recent events.
“These people are all scared to have their kids outside and I don’t blame them,” he said.
Selectman Matt Rouleau agreed.
“It would simplify your life a great deal,” he told Skinner.
That’s when Punchar offered the board, Skinner and Bruno an out — volunteering to take in the dog with an eye toward assessing whether he could safely be put up for adoption.
“I would hate for the answer to just be: ‘Euthanize him,’ without having a more thorough evaluation of him in a setting where he could stay safe,” she said.
All agreed that was an acceptable resolution and Skinner was ordered to surrender the dog to Punchar first thing Tuesday morning.
(Barre Montpelier Times Argus - April 22, 2015)
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