Select Board members voted unanimously Tuesday to declare a brown mastiff belonging to Joshua Malam of Abbot Lane a dangerous dog. Under Harvard’s bylaws, a dangerous dog is one that “Without justification, attacks a person or domestic animal … causing physical injury or death.”
According to a complaint filed by Patrick and Leslie Bunnell of East Bare Hill Road, the mastiff wandered into their yard several times last summer. On Sunday, Aug. 27, Leslie Bunnell was playing outside with their 10-year-old corgi when the mastiff suddenly appeared and attacked the smaller dog. The Bunnells were able to drive the mastiff off, but the corgi suffered deep bite wounds, requiring treatment costing more than $1,000 in veterinary bills.
At the time of the attack, the Bunnells did not know who owned the mastiff. But they reported the incident both to the police and to Paul Willard, the town’s animal control officer.
A few days later, Malam called police to say his brown mastiff had run off. Malam was staying at an Abbot Lane house owned by Joseph Gatto, whose property abuts the Bunnells’ land. Although the mastiff soon came home, the report led Sgt. Matthew Callahan to call Malam and ask about the earlier attack on the corgi. Malam denied his dog could have been involved, a position he continued to maintain at Tuesday’s hearing. Malam asserted his dog was indoors most of the time and was always leashed when outside.
But Willard was certain of the identification. “It could be no other dog. There’s no doubt in my mind,” he told the Select Board.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan confirmed that no other brown mastiffs are registered in that area. Moreover, although Malam has been staying at the Abbot Lane home since last spring, his dog was never licensed in Harvard. (Dog owners have 30 days after moving to town to register their dogs.)
Bragan noted that Gatto’s two dogs at 15 Abbot Lane are also unlicensed. Because Gatto is the property owner, he shares with Malam the responsibility for the mastiff’s attack, as well as being responsible for his own dogs, which were recently the subject of a clerk magistrate hearing after repeated complaints from neighbors about prolonged barking.
Select Board member Charles Oliver said, “We have enough evidence to deem [the mastiff] a dangerous dog,” and moved to do so. The motion passed unanimously.
Because Malam said he planned to move out of state with the dog soon, the board did not require Gatto to put up a secure fence. But the board did require the mastiff be both leashed and muzzled whenever it was outside. Malam was also ordered to repay the Bunnells for the veterinary bills; to license his dog and present its rabies certificate; and to pay the town fines for failing to license it—all within 30 days.
“If any of those items are violated,” Select Board Chair Rich Maiore said ominously, “you’ll find yourself back in front of us again, and we will have harsher options, and some options we don’t want to be dealing with.” The Select Board has the authority to require a dangerous dog be euthanized.
