BELCHERTOWN — A clerk magistrate has reversed the South Hadley Select Board’s decision to euthanize a town resident’s Saint Bernard.
The 2-year-old dog named Ziggy was ordered euthanized in August after the dog was deemed a threat to public safety. The dog’s owner, April Marion, filed an appeal later that month in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
Town officials and Marion were issued an Oct. 10 court notice informing them that Clerk Magistrate William P. Nagle Jr. ruled the town’s decision has been reversed.
Standing next to a reporter Friday morning at the counter of the Eastern Hampshire District Court clerk’s office, Marion heard the news from court clerks before Nagle’s official ruling arrived in her mailbox.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to have Ziggy home with us and not be worried that somebody can just come and take him away or kill him,” Marion said by phone later that day. “I’m just really happy that the magistrate was able to see that this was a very unfair decision from the town.”
Marion described the Ziggy as “loving, caring and affectionate.”
“He’s a really good dog,” she said.
After learning of the decision, Marion said she left the courthouse to call her children.
“They are so excited to have their dog home to snuggle,” she said. “He is a big snuggler.”
South Hadley Town Administrator Michael Sullivan said the town will file an appeal within the 10-day period allowed.
“We still feel strongly that there (were) issues,” Sullivan said. “We will continue along the road.”
An appeal likely sends the case to a full court hearing in front of a judge where testimony will be given and evidence will be entered into the record, according to Sullivan. While that process takes place, Sullivan said he believes Ziggy would be under the same order the board issued in May 2016.
That order said that Marion must 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.
Marion filed an appeal in court in August after four South Hadley Select Board members unanimously approved on Aug. 8 to have the dog euthanized. Board member Ira Brezinsky abstained from the vote on the grounds that he was not present for a previous hearing on the issue in July.
During the hearing last week before the clerk magistrate, Nagle and attorneys representing the town and Marion watched three meetings — May 17, 2016, July 11, 2017 and Aug. 8, 2017 — which 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.
Marion’s attorney Thom Page argued in front of Nagle earlier this month 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 and that the appropriate punishment could be fine or a jail time. Nagle could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
In making its decision, the Select Board deemed that Marion had not complied with orders that the kennel on the property where Marion was living be connected to the home’s back door and that the dogs be leashed and muzzled on walks.
Countering Page’s statement, town counsel Edward Ryan argued that throughout the hearing, deliberations and vote there was ample discussion and evidence to support the dangerous dog determination and that the board took “great pain in making the ultimate decision they made.”
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.