HALIFAX —Selectmen ordered “Rufus,” an American Bulldog owned by Thomas Wilson of Holmes Street, to be euthanized after hearing evidence in a dog-on-dog attack concluding a dog hearing during their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, April 9.

The more than hour-long hearing, with three police officers present, appeared to exhaust the many witnesses and selectmen present. The hearing was clearly upsetting to  Rufus’ owner, Thomas Wilson, a tall man who spoke in a booming voice, and his girlfriend, who was present for the hearing.

The dog-on-dog attack occurred Saturday, March 16. Joseph Botelho, of Doris Road, was walking his dog, a Rat Terrier named “Penny,” near the intersection of Annawon Drive and Holmes Street, in front of Lindy’s General Store in the early evening.

Officer Rob McDonnell happened to be in a cruiser at Lindy’s that night, and said he witnessed a dog, identified as Wilson’s, escape from a fenced-in area and attack Botelho’s dog, “swinging her like a rag doll,” that occurred just as Botelho walked by McDonnell’s cruiser.

McDonnell immediately came to their assistance, he said.

Wilson said that Rufus escaped from his house when his girlfriend went out for a cigarette.

“[Rufus] grabbed my poor dog and shook her like a rag doll,” said Botelho, echoing the officer’s testimony to the board.

Pictures of Penny’s injuries, which caused the Selectmen visible distress, showed what appeared to be serious injuries to her hind quarter.

Penny, who is doing much better, said Botelho, needed more than $4,600 in veterinary treatment. Rufus was not properly inoculated which caused additional expenses.

After the attack, Wilson was issued a citation by Animal Control Officer Noreen Callahan for having a vicious and unlicensed dog, second violation, for $110, and the dog was home quarantined.

“I’m a dog lover, and I’m sorry this happened,” said Wilson, but his various explanations and eventual pleading with the board would not sway them.

The board keyed in on the fact that this was not Rufus’ first attack on another dog.

In 2017, Rufus attacked a different neighbor’s dog, which resulted in a dog hearing that Wilson did not attend.

While Wilson insisted repeatedly on debating whether or not his dog was “aggressive” or just “dog-aggressive,” as he put it, this ultimately did not matter to the board.

He said that he had fixed his defective gate, but this was disputed by Callahan. He then said he had a wooden pallet to block the gate for more security, but no one present had ever witnessed the pallet. He begged the board for a chance to enroll Rufus in dog training, but they would not budge.

Selectman Chairman Kim Roy said that Rufus “mauled” Penny several times. She added that if Wilson could not come up with the $10 to license his dog, she did not think that he would ultimately enroll the dog in training classes.

    “I’ll borrow it from my girlfriend,” said Wilson. When Selectman Troy Garron asked him why he had not borrowed the money yet, he responded, “Have you ever had to ask to borrow money from your wife? It’s hard.”

   Garron, an animal lover who said he had been around dogs his whole life and used to train police dogs when he was a police officer, said that dogs reflect the personalities of their owners.

   “If you can’t handle a dog that’s aggressive, you should not have that dog – it’s not fair to the dog,” he stated.

“I’ve had the dog eight years and only two incidents occurred,” exclaimed Wilson.

“It was a mauling!” replied Roy.

At one point, Officer McDonnell hushed Wilson, who replied, “She’s the one you should tell not to start,” referring to Roy.

Selectman Tom Millias, who in the past usually observes dog hearings quietly and then offers his thoughts toward the end, was no different this time. When Roy asked him if he had anything to add, he said, “I don’t think I have much more to offer,” but later engaged with Wilson.

   “It appears you don’t have control over the dog at all times, and that’s a problem for me,” he said.

      “Let me prove to you … give me an opportunity!” Wilson begged the Selectman, but to no avail.

      “You had two years to do that,” said Millias.

     Roy asked Callahan for her recommendation, and it appeared that she was trying to give Wilson a chance to prove himself, but he interrupted her repeatedly and she acquiesced to the board.

     Roy also asked Animal Inspector Brian Kling, who had interacted with Wilson and Rufus, for his opinion. “I’ll be blunt,” he said, “I don’t think Mr. Wilson should have a dog.”

   Roy then entertained a motion to euthanize Rufus, and the board voted unanimously to order the dog put down.

  In conversations with board members after the vote, all expressed difficulty coming to the decision, and none took the matter lightly.

   “Dog hearings are my least favorite part of this job,” said Millias.

   “I hate having to put down an animal,” said Roy, but noted it was the job of the Selectmen to protect the citizens (and dogs) of Halifax.

In other Halifax Board of Selectmen news:

  • Representative Kathy LaNatra visited the Selectmen. She was originally scheduled last meeting to attend with State Senator Michael Brady, and the Board reiterated issues that they had presented to him to address to her as well, including the ongoing issue of cars passing stopped school busses loading and unloading children.

• Marge Smith was appointed to the Council on Aging.

  • Noreen Callahan was reappointed Animal Control Officer.

• The next scheduled meeting of the Halifax Board of Selectmen is Tuesday, April 23, in the Selectman’s meeting room of Town Hall. The time is still to be announced.

HALIFAX — The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, March 26, taking on a lengthy regular agenda and two executive sessions while also entertaining several appointments. The board heard a presentation on stormwater management mandates imposed by the federal government, news that MassDOT’s RMV division will no longer take reports by school bus operators of license plate numbers of drivers who were passing stopped school buses and had a visit from State Senator Michael Brady.

Halifax holds a stormwater management permit from the federal government, as required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. In EPA parlance they are known as municipal separate storm sewer systems (or MS4).

The permit now requires the town to make significant changes to its procedures and bylaws, according to Annie Bastoni, a senior water resources consultant with Watertown-based VHB, Inc., a civil engineering firm hired to help the town comply with the new requirements. Bastoni made a presentation via telephone to the board.

Stormwater, she said, comes from snow melt and rain runoff, which picks up pollutants such as pet waste, leaves, motor oil, fertilizers, detergents and trash as it runs to waterbodies. The permit for the town’s stormwater management system, which was renewed July 1, 2018, contains new regulations not present in previous permits.

Bastoni explained what the new mandates from the EPA will mean for the town. She noted that the rules and regulations will only affect the “urbanized” portions of Halifax, where most new development is occurring, and not the whole town. She said the town could decide to apply the regulations across the entire town.

The town must follow six steps – or minimum control measures – and implement three bylaws at town meeting. The requirements at each step have varying degrees of complexity.

Steps one and two require the town to educate and reach out to townspeople to try to change behaviors related to stormwater runoff. Steps three, four, and five are the bylaws that must be approved. They regulate illicit discharge, construction site runoff control and post-construction site runoff control. The final step, six, requires the town to prevent and reduce pollution for town facilities.

The actions required by the town are extensive– everything from documentation of procedures, cataloguing equipment, conducting investigations and developing best practices to sweeping town-owned streets and parking lots twice a year.

Town Administrator Charlie Seelig noted that the town will incur additional expenses due to these mandates.

The board was informed by Seelig that MassDOT was no longer taking complaints from school bus companies regarding motorists who passs stopped busses while their red lights are flashing and stop signs displayed, as they previously had.

According to First Student, the town’s bus contractor, there was a form used to report license plate numbers collected by bus drivers that they would forward to MassDOT’s RMV division. The department is no longer collecting those forms, said Seelig. The bus company said it had thrown out the forms because they are no longer being accepted.

A MassDOT representative, Judi Riley, said, “The Registry of Motor Vehicles encourages school bus drivers to report to local law enforcement any incidents involving motorists who pass school buses that are actively operating with their lights on and signage displayed. In the past, the Registry has facilitated the collection of reporting forms, but determined that these serious claims should be vetted directly through law enforcement that has the ability to cite operators for this type of dangerous driving behavior.”

Halifax Police Chief Joao Chaves said, “I have been in contact with First Student and advised them to forward me the info on violations if they occur, and we will try our best to follow up on [them].”

State Senator Michael Brady, of Brockton, who represents Halifax as part of the Second Plymouth and Bristol district, sat down with the board. He was loquacious, speaking at ease about goings-on on Beacon Hill, but didn’t give the board much chance to ask questions or voice their concerns until the very end of their discussion.

Selectman Chairman Kim Roy thanked Brady for his help obtaining funds to help offset the costs of treating the Monponsett Ponds, which he said he was able to obtain through an appropriation. “We’re looking for revenue from every source,” he said.

The board also expressed frustration with the current model of charter school funding, which they said is unfair to the town. They asked Brady for assistance with charter school tuition reimbursement.

They also described special education as a “budget killer,” and asked Brady for assistance in changing the model for how towns are reimbursed from the state for special education expenses.

Seelig mentioned to Brady that the recycling market was changing, which he described as a “big-picture” problem. “The citizens of the commonwealth are mandated to recycle,” he said, but it’s getting more expensive for the town. Brady asked about Halifax’s recycling program, and said he’d look into what could be done to help the situation.

• The next scheduled Halifax Board of Selectmen’s meeting is Tuesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room of Town Hall. unless otherwise posted.