In a hearing Wednesday morning this week, the Select Board declared a dog owned by Robert Rapant of 232 Massachusetts Avenue to be a dangerous dog. Two people, in separate incidents, charged the dog had bitten them.
The hearing was originally scheduled for the Select Board’s Aug. 12 meeting, but neither Rapant nor the dog-bite victims appeared at that meeting. So the Select Board continued the hearing to Aug. 20. Rapant and the victims again failed to appear. So the board relied on information from Animal Control Officer Phyllis Tower and from police reports.
In one report, Tower described the dog as “resembling a yellow Lab but stockier, possibly mixed with pitbull.” Rapant had adopted it from Buddy Dog in Sudbury in November 2024, but the dog was never licensed in Harvard.
The first bite victim was delivery driver Marcia C. Soares Lima, who knocked on Rapant’s door July 5, because she needed his signature on a delivery. Lima said Rapant opened the door and then deliberately released the dog. It bit her leg as she yelled for help. According to Lima’s statement, Rapant laughed and said, “He’s not doing anything.” Lima was later treated at UMass Marlborough, and photographs with the report show bloody puncture wounds on her leg.
The second biting incident took place July 18, as David Lyons reported at the police station. Lyons said he was a longtime friend of Rapant’s and had gone to his house to take him out for his birthday. When Rapant opened the door, the dog jumped up and bit Lyons’ hand, drawing blood. The police report described the bite as a small laceration.
At the time of the incidents, Tower checked with Buddy Dog and learned the dog had received its rabies vaccination there before adoption, and that vaccination was still current. However, the dog was still required to be quarantined after each biting incident.
At the Wednesday hearing, it was quickly clear the Select Board members agreed the dog was a danger in its present home. But only after an hour of debate did they agree on an order. They set a 72-hour period in which the animal control officer was to contact Buddy Dog and ask it to send a representative to reclaim the dog from Rapant. The representative would be accompanied by Tower and a Harvard police officer for safety. If Buddy Dog was not willing to send someone to the owner’s house, the board ruled, the next step would be to impound the dog and then ask Buddy Dog to take it back from the pound.
