Lawyers and Animal Advocates Fight to Save Dakota the Dog as Judge Overturns Maine Governor's Pardon
Just weeks after Maine Governor Paul LePage granted a full pardon to a dog, a district court has overturned the decision and ordered the Siberian husky named Dakota to be euthanized.
According to the Bangor Daily News, Judge Valerie Stanfill said that despite the governor’s pardon, Maine law requires a dog be put down after it is declared dangerous and then attacks again.
“Justice was not done today,” Bonnie Martinolich, who represents Dakota’s new owner, Linda Janeski, said to reporters after the hearing.
Martinolich told the judge she intends to file a motion to stay the 4-year-old dog’s execution, pending an appeal to the Maine Supreme Court. Dakota must be euthanized within 48 hours unless Stanfill is convinced to issue a stay on the kill order so advocates for the pet can pursue the appeal.
In February 2016, Dakota escaped from her home and attacked and killed a smaller dog. As a result, the husky was ordered to be confined to her home, unless she was leashed and muzzled.
The husky was found running loose again in January 2017. According to the Bangor Daily News, she bit the same neighbor’s new dog on the neck, though the pug was not seriously injured.
Maine Gov Paul LePage just pardoned a dog from a death sentence. No joke. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/IBQucwRKFf
- James Pindell (@JamesPindell) March 30, 2017
Dakota was taken to the Waterville Area Humane Society as a stray. Due to a miscommunication between the Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office and the animal shelter, she was adopted by a new family on March 18, three days before Stanfill issued the kill order.
LePage, who is a pet parent himself to pup Veto, was contacted by staff at Waterville Area Humane Society saying Dakota was a “model animal” under its care.
“I have reviewed the facts of this case and I believe the dog ought to be provided a full and free pardon,” Governor LePage said in the statement.
