Nuisance Dog Owner Will Face Hearing

A six-month effort by a Rockland St. resident to get an “entitled, irresponsible dog owner” to stop allowing his two golden retrievers to run through the neighborhood unleashed proved that persistence does pay off, as the Natick Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to hold a Dog Hearing for Michael Dyer of 5 Presbrey Pl.

Bob Doherty, the Rockland St. resident who spearheaded the campaign, was joined by three other area residents at the meeting to request the dog hearing.

“The dogs run loose, they defecate on people’s lawns,” Doherty said. “I’ve probably placed 50 calls to the dog officer.”

In his first letter to the Board of Selectmen, dated Sept. 24, Doherty wrote that the two dogs:

defecate and urinate throughout the neighborhood, on other people’s lawns (including, of course, mine), the middle of the street and my children’s bus stop at the corner of Rockland and Presbrey Pl. Just this morning I witnessed one of his dogs defecating at the bus stop. There were also two other piles of feces at the bus stop. I would prefer that my child, or any of the other children at the bus stop (both a Memorial and Kennedy School bus stop), not beginning their day by stepping in dog feces.

Doherty noted in a follow-up letter, dated Feb. 19, that Town Administrator Martha White “responded promptly” to his first letter, advising him to try to resolve the situation through Animal Control Officer Keith Tosi. That didn’t seem to deter Dyer from allowing his golden retrievers to roam through the neighborhood unleashed and he didn’t begin to pick up after them, according to Doherty.

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“This has been a chronic problem,” Tosi said at the meeting on Monday night. “The dogs aren’t vicious; they’re just a nuisance. He pays the fines. A couple times he didn’t pay, and then he went to court and paid.”

Tosi said after the meeting that he’s written somewhere between 6-12 citations to Dyer over the past several months, also mentioning that it’s not a new problem, as Dyer has had other dogs previously that he’s familiar with. Tosi has been the Animal Control Officer for 20 years in Natick.

“We’re hopeful you can help,” said a man who lives next door to Dyer. He also added that the dogs have been left out very late at night for long periods of time, and there has been barking. He also mentioned another area dog owner has also been letting his dog run free in the neighborhood, and that maybe it’s become something that people feel is okay since others are doing it.

“I can attest to this,” Selectman Nicholas Mabardy said. “Both these properties abut mine. These dogs run loose all the time. “

The next step will be the Dog Hearing, which will likely take place in a few weeks. There are many things that can come out of a Dog Hearing, but that essentially it’s some sort of compliance. The Selectmen could tell Dyer he needs to get an electric fence, for example. It’s similar to probation for dogs.

“Usually it’s for vicious animals, but it doesn’t have to be,” Tosi said. “It’s for nuisance animals.”