Two dogs condemned to death for killing a Boston terrier last year are on the run after their owner took them for a walk.
The pair of pit bulls, named Kole and Bentley, have been kept at the Waterville Humane Society since the attack. On Tuesday, the Maine Supreme Court upheld a district court decision that the dogs should be euthanized.
Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey said Wednesday afternoon that the dogs’ owner, Danielle Jones, visited the shelter early Tuesday afternoon to take the dogs for a walk. She returned to the shelter soon after and said the dogs “got away from her,” according to Massey.
[High court refuses to spare lives of Winslow pit bulls]
Police weren’t informed that the dogs were missing until Tuesday evening, Massey said. They haven’t been able to reach the owner or find the dogs since.
“The dogs, as far as we know, are on the loose,” Massey said Wednesday. Anyone who spots one or both of the pit bulls is asked to contact police.
On Aug. 31, 2016, the dogs escaped Jones’ fenced yard and attacked a woman walking her 10-month-old puppy, Fergie Rose, the briefs filed in the appeal said.
The owner was bitten on both hands and had scratches on her back from trying to get her much smaller dog away from the pit bulls, the briefs state. The Boston bull terrier died a short time later at a local vet’s office.
Jones was charged with two counts of keeping a dangerous dog, a civil violation that carries a fine of $250 per count. District Court Judge Eric Walker ruled in November 2016 that because the dogs had previously attacked and injured another dog in May 2015, they were dangerous and Maine law required that they be euthanized at the owner’s expense. That order was stayed when Jones appealed the decision.
The court’s original kill order, dated Nov. 29, 2016, said the dogs should be euthanized within 30 days. That order, which was stayed pending the appeal, was expected to be back in place once the clerk’s office at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta received official notice of the court’s decision.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.
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