Dog owner Bruno Fernandes told Ludlow selectmen he'd move 2 dogs who attacked a 7-year-old to Springfield.
SPRINGFIELD - Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said Thursday the city will do everything possible to block a Ludlow man from relocating his two dogs to Indian Orchard after they attacked a 7-year-old girl in August.
Sarno was snarling after learning that the dogs’ owner, Bruno Fernandes, had informed Ludlow selectmen Tuesday that he would voluntarily keep the two dogs permanently out of that town, housing them instead at 1213 Worcester St., in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield.
At a hastily called press conference outside the Worcester Street business property, Sarno said he is conferring with the Law Department, city clerk, police and animal control officials to fight any effort to locate the dogs here.
“The audacity,” Sarno said. “‘Let’s just move (the dogs) to Springfield.’ What about our children in Springfield? Do I have to wait, God forbid, for something to happen here? Ludlow’s not tolerating it. I’m not going to tolerate it either.”
“It’s egregious,” Sarno said. “I’m sick and tired of Springfield being a dumping ground. It’s time to take a stand.”
The girl was attacked at 177 Lakeview Ave, in Ludlow, outside her grandparents’ house, according to the girl’s mother, Lucy Ferreira. Her daughter, Madeleine, has to have rabies shots for four weeks because she was bit in the stomach and the dogs’ rabies shots had expired, the mother said.
The dogs, named Dora the Explorer and Princess, were described as mixed breed boxer and Mastiff dogs, each weighing about 75 pounds. Residents of Lakeview Avenue had made more than 10 complaints about the dogs during the last 13 months, according to a Ludlow animal control officer.
“I sympathize with the city of Springfield and its residents,” said William E. Rooney, chairman of the Ludlow Board of Selectmen. “We fully realize that by having the dogs sent elsewhere, they will have to be somewhere.”
But Rooney said he hopes that a hearing earlier this week served as a “wake-up call.” At the hearing, Fernandes was fined for allowing a dog under quarantine to run loose, for failing to keep the dogs up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations and for letting a dog bite a child off his property.
“I hope he now knows he has to be a better citizen,” Rooney said.
Rooney said Ludlow officials wanted to avoid ordering that the dogs be put down, a solution he called “drastic.”
Patricia Voisine, an Indian Orchard resident, said she is concerned the dogs might attack passers-by including children and elderly people, particularly with the Indian Orchard library located directly across the street. Many children also walk home from school on that sidewalk, she said.
“Indian Orchard is not a dumping ground for everything,” Voisine said.
Springfield has a very strict ordinance aimed at protecting the public from vicious and potentially vicious dogs, said Sarno and Pamela L. Peebles, executive director of the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center. Under the law, if deemed vicious or potentially vicious, the dogs would need to be in a fully fenced enclosure including a fenced-in top, and the owner would need a $100,000 liability insurance policy among other regulations.
Peebles said there will be immediate action, including a hearing, if the dogs are moved to Indian Orchard. Police Lt. Thomas Trites, also attending the press conference, said the site will be monitored.
A sign on the chain link fence read “Cuidado! Perro Malo,” which translates from Spanish as a warning about a “bad dog”
Freddy Rosario, the manager of “The Car Guy,” a business located on the property, said there is no way he will allow a vicious dog to be kept there.
The property is listed as owned by Progressive Enterprises LLC., listing Miguel Goncalves of Ludlow as owner. Fernandes may be part owner, according to the tenant and city.