Dog bites neighbor and selectmen sentenced him to death

[NewEngland4Obama]

I wished they could find another owner who had a fence instead of killing the dog. Really a beautiful dog.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Dog hearing is rescheduled

Court date awaited for ‘Sunny’

By Paula J. Owen CORRESPONDENT

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Sunny the Malamute bit a neighbor in November and selectmen sentenced him in December to death.
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LEOMINSTER — The fate of Sunny, a 1-year-old Alaskan malamute, is in limbo as parties wait for a court date on the appeal to spare his life. Princeton selectmen decided Dec. 8 to put the dog down.

Lawyer Richard A. Mulhearn from Worcester, representing Sunny’s owner, Leo J. Montagna of Princeton, said yesterday a joint motion was filed in Leominster District Court to reschedule the hearing, which was originally to have been yesterday.

Lawyers should have another date by tomorrow, he said.


“It was scheduled to go before the judge, but under the statute it has to go before the clerk magistrate for the initial hearing and decision,” Mr. Mulhearn said. “Court appeals in dog nuisance cases are not routine and are pretty rare. No one is very familiar with the required procedures.”

He said that under law, the clerk magistrate will make a decision and then, if it is unfavorable, Mr. Montagna can appeal it to a judge.

“He loves the dog,” Mr. Mulhearn said. “He thinks the selectmen’s decision is drastic and that they misconstrued the dog’s behavior. He is willing to do what they tell him to do to make sure the dog is safe and sound.”

Mr. Mulhearn said Sunny is like Mr. Montagna’s “100-pound little baby.”

He said moving the dog to another place with a different owner may be an effective alternative to the town ordering it be killed. He said at the hearing Dec. 8, where residents living on Mr. Montagna’s road voiced their concerns, that fear might have “got the better hand.”

Selectmen Joseph O’Brien and Raymond A. Dennehy III voted at that hearing to euthanize the dog against the recommendations of animal behaviorist Philip W. Bolack, a certified dog trainer from Sterling.

Selectman Alan Sentkowski was not present.

Selectmen had asked Mr. Montagna to hire an animal expert to evaluate Sunny after a complaint about Sunny’s allegedly unprovoked attack on neighbor Alwin J. Haase, 40 Bigelow Road, on Nov. 3. Mr. Haase said the dog knocked him down from behind and bit his arms and legs and scratched his back.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090115/NEWS/901150796/1008/NEWS02

[NewEngland4Obama]

1. This is in Leominster, Massachusetts