Dogs

Sometimes it's easy being a Monday morning quarterback, or in my case, a Tuesday morning quarterback.

A common complaint that I heard during the selectman's campaign was that the selectmen spend more time talking about dogs than the more important issues, like unrestrained development. This past Monday was no different, as there were several dog-related hearings on the agenda that packed the selectmen's meeting.

Our youngest daughter attends Teaticket Elementary and we own three dogs, so the issue with the rottweiler attacks is rather personal. No, my daughter wasn't one of the injured, but it hit close to home.

I don't disagree with the decision to order the dogs euthanized. In my job, I look for patterns. If something happens once, it is an act of God. If it happens twice, there's something there that must be fixed. The same thing applies to these rottweillers. Once is an accident; twice is a pattern. While it may be possible to rehabilitate a person (a question for another time), rehabilitating a dog is an entirely different animal - forgive the pun - and in this case they should be euthanized.

That said; I have a problem with the process. Every defendant deserves their day in court, and Ms. Warren, the owner of the rottweilers, deserved an audience with the selectmen. The fact that her attorney asked for a continuance that was denied is disturbing, since it opens the town up to appeals, which have already begun. Concerns about the rottweilers going back to Ms. Warren could have been addressed by simply declaring them dangerous and ordering them held by Animal Control until the next hearing.

Frankly, I think the selectmen allowed themselves to be swayed by an angry mob; it's pretty easy to go along with the crowd. Unforutnately, by placating the mob, the selectmen denied Ms. Warren her civil rights.

On the other hand, the hearing for Mr. Rose's pitbull was a slam dunk that the selectmen missed. Not only was Mr. Rose not in compliance with the order to build a fence to contain his dog, this animal had been banned from Randolph. Any animal that has been banned from another town should not be welcome here.

So, in one night, the selectmen managed to deny someone their civil rights, and allow a dangerous animal with an uncooperative owner to continue living in Falmouth. Maybe I'm Tuesday-morning-quarterbacking here (Friday-evening-quarterbacking?), but there's something wrong with these decisions.