@ecutts_HG
BELCHERTOWN — A South Hadley dog owner’s attorney argued before a clerk magistrate Wednesday that town officials had no authority to order the Saint Bernard euthanized.
The 2-year-old dog’s owner, April Marion, filed an appeal in Eastern Hampshire District Court in August. The South Hadley Select Board ordered on Aug. 8 that the dog, Ziggy, be euthanized after it was deemed a threat to public safety.
Clerk Magistrate William P. Nagle Jr. did not issue a decision Wednesday, after viewing two hours of meeting videos and suggesting an alternative resolution to the lawyers.
“I’ve seen it over and over again,” Marion’s attorney, Thom Page, said in court. “Reasonable people get frustrated, they think, this is how we are going to solve the problem. It is not what the law says.”
The three meetings viewed on video — May 17, 2016, July 11, 2017 and Aug. 8, 2017 — detailed the Select Board’s discussions about Ziggy and his mother, Tiara. Tiara was euthanized in May.
Between May 2016 and May 2017, the two dogs were alleged to have chased a mail carrier, bitten a jogger, attacked a dog on a walk with its owner and bitten a 74-year-old man. In May 2016, Marion was ordered to buy an insurance policy for $100,000 of coverage for dog bites, keep the dogs fenced in and keep them muzzled and leashed on walks.
In court, Nagle urged Page and South Hadley Town Attorney Edward Ryan to discuss whether it would be possible to relocate Ziggy instead of having the dog euthanized.
Following a brief out-of-court discussion, the attorneys returned to say they were of “the mind and the opinion that the law does not permit that.”
After reviewing the meetings, Page argued that an owner’s inability to comply with a previous public safety order was not a reason under the state statute to order an animal to be euthanized.
Ryan countered that throughout the course of the hearing and deliberations and ultimate vote there was ample discussion and evidence supporting the dangerous dog determination.
“It was the aggressive nature of both dogs on a number of occasions that led them to the determination that these were indeed dangerous dogs,” Ryan said. “It is apparent from both of the hearings you watched that the Select Board took great pain in making the ultimate decision they made.”
At the beginning of the hearing, Ryan told Nagle that the decision to uphold or reject the appeal would be based on two criteria: that the decision was found to be done without proper cause or that it was done in bad faith.
Nagle took the matter under advisement. Ziggy is currently “out of state,” according to Page.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.
