LINCOLN, Maine — A Lincoln District Court judge dismissed a charge placed last month against a local farmer accused of poisoning crows with pesticide-laced bread that killed a neighbor’s two dogs, officials said Friday.
District Court Judge Kevin Stitham dismissed the charge issued to Al Fugazzi, 66, without comment Tuesday, a court clerk said.
The owner of Stone Wall Farms was issued a summons May 10, charging him with illegally taking or killing wild birds, a Class E crime punishable by up to six months incarceration and a $1,000 fine, police said. He will not face charges in connection with the poisoning of the dogs in the April 23 incident, Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy has said.
Fugazzi was issued the summons after Lincoln police Officer John Walsh found seven dead crows on Fugazzi’s farm as part of his investigation of the deaths of the dogs. State law prohibits the killing of “wild birds, with the exception of rock doves and wild turkeys,” and Fugazzi admitted spreading the insecticide, according to Dan Summers, Lincoln’s public safety director.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Agriculture’s Board of Pesticides Control has finished its own investigation, Henry Jennings, the board’s director, said Friday.
The investigation, which focused on whether Fugazzi violated regulations on the use of the insecticide, likely will be reviewed by members of the department’s Board of Pesticides Control within the next several weeks, Jennings said.
A board meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 1, but it was unclear whether the board would review Fugazzi’s case, Jennings said. The board usually meets about 10 times per year.
“It is generally a slow process, and there are a lot of cases in front of it,” Jennings said Friday.
The bread, Walsh’s investigation revealed, was sprinkled with Lannate pesticide. That’s a trade name for methomyl, a broad-spectrum insecticide that in fatal cases paralyzes the muscles of the respiratory system and severely constricts lung openings, Walsh has said.
Fugazzi is appropriately licensed to use Lannate and had no apparent intention to harm the dogs, police said. Farmers also have the right to protect their land or crops against damage caused by most animals. The dogs did not have permission to be on the property, and the farm-protection law contains no provisions for pet dogs, Summers said.
Stone Wall Farms is off Hoover Lane. It also has a farm stand on West Broadway.