The politics of vicious dogs is heating up in Morgan County.
It started at a January 16 meeting of the Morgan County Commission in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
Commissioner Stacy Dugan (D) introduced a vicious dog ordinance that would allow the county to put down a vicious dog after one bite. The ordinance was based on a similar law passed in neighboring Berkeley County.
At the following meeting, January 30, Commission chair Brad Close (R) countered with attorney Dick Gay to shoot down Dugan’s proposal..
Dugan was not happy. She said she was not informed that Gay would be present.
Close said that he personally offered to pay for Gay’s legal fees so he wasn’t required to notify his fellow commissioners.
Close didn’t make available what Gay was proposing. Close said it was a Commission meeting not a public meeting.
Both Close and Commissioner Bob Ford (R) opposed Dugan’s initiative.
Gay argued that the county’s laws, including its leash law and public nuisance law, are enough to get control of the vicious dog problem.
At the end of the meeting, Gay was tasked with toughening current law to tackle the problem and present his proposal at the next Commission meeting — February 6.
But Dugan was clearly not happy with the result.
A couple of days after the meeting, Dugan shoots off an angry e-mail to Gay.
“Mr. Gay,” Dugan wrote in the e-mail.
“I understood we voted to have you do two things — 1) remove the appeals process language that you say we are not permitted to enact under state law, and 2) fold this new ordinance into the existing leash law.”
“Instead, what you did was 1) create an appeals process which would permit a vicious dog to live even after a magistrate says it must die, and 2) return to the unworkable one free bite rule which has resulted in the very problem we are trying to fix.”
“I did not think it was possible to make an ordinance even more pro-vicious dog and anti-victim than the state code provisions, but despite having absolutely no orders to do so, this is what you have done.”
“Not only did you show up at our meeting without a vote of the entire commission, you then proceeded to write an ordinance that is actually more favorable to vicious dogs that what we are doing now.”
“As it stands now, Officer Roper tells me, and Greg Miller concurs, that a dog which has engaged in only one bite or attack is not a dog which they can order destroyed. Since Roper is the only law enforcement member in the county who has brought a case in 2013, that would appear to be the final word on how the statute is interpreted.”
“I got into this issue because people like Evan Waugh were being bitten and there was nothing Animal Control could do since, with only one event, they could not find that the dog was ‘in the habit of biting.’ I have spoken with an attorney who is familiar with these code sections and with the powers of counties under the code. Once we have declared a dog a public nuisance we can abate that public nuisance.”
“‘Abate’ means ‘to put an end to’ the public nuisance. ‘Put an end to’ the vicious dog does not include returning the dog to its owner until it attacks someone else, yet that is what your ridiculous re-write permits. I cannot imagine you would have gotten this so wrong without help from the other Commissioners. Since you did not consult me and did not do what we voted for you to do, I will vote to return your bill to you unpaid.”
“I have lost a great deal of trust for you as I have watched you weaken and ruin this effort to protect children.”