ACLU Steps in to NK Vicious Dog Case as Family Pets Face Possible Euthanization

The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has intervened in a court case involving a local family’s two dogs that were deemed vicious at an October hearing and could be euthanized depending on the result of a hearing next month.

The dogs -- a pair of pit bulls named Ozzy and Balou -- live with another pit bull and owner and North Kingstown resident Kristy Miserendino, her boyfriend and mother.

A hearing panel last month deemed two of the three dogs vicious after they reportedly nipped or bit a passerby outside their Hickory Drive home.

The family was told they could keep the dogs if they agreed to a series of requirements that included obtaining insurance, posting warning signs, keeping the dogs in an enclosed area and leashed and muzzled while off the property.

Miserendino complied with the instructions but about a month later, the family got a letter from the North Kingstown Police Department informing them that a local ordinance barring vicious dogs within a mile of a school or daycare facility meant the dogs must be removed from the house, which is within a mile of the South County Montessori School on Tower Hill Road.

Ozzy and Balou were seized and are currently being held at the North Kingstown Animal Shelter pending a Dec. 3 hearing.

ACLU volunteer attorney Mark B. Morse, who filed the appeal on behalf of Miserendino will argue that the town’s residency restriction “conflicts with the state hearing panel decision and with state law that establishes detailed procedures and penalties regarding ‘vicious’ dogs,” an ALCU release stated.

Morse will further argue that the owners’ due process rights were violated when the Town seized the dogs under that ordinance after the owners had complied with the state decision.

“I am very concerned about the application of North Kingstown’s ordinance as it applies to Ms. Miserendino’s family since they did everything they were supposed to do to keep their pets, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them following their compliance,” Morse said. ”I am also concerned about the validity of the ordinance in general. Rhode Island’s Vicious Dog Statute provides for certain restrictions if a dog is found vicious. The hearing officers then have a right to impose all or some of these restrictions as they think is necessary to protect the public. For the Town to seek further restrictions, beyond that required by the Vicious Dog Statute, interferes with the authority of the State to properly manage these type of issues.”

The whole incident has taken a toll on the family, Miserendino said.

“After complying with all state laws, our dogs were returned to us after being held at the pound for almost thirty days,” she said. “More than a month later, we were given ten days to move out of our home or kill our dogs. On October 15th, my children witnessed the town coming to my home at 7:30 am with a search warrant to seize our dogs, and to this day they remain at the shelter. It would break our hearts if we were forced to euthanize our dogs over this unfortunate incident.”

According to police reports, the dogs were involved in at least two dog bite incidents. On July 26, a neighbor walking in the neighborhood was reportedly charged by the two dogs, who were unleashed, and suffered a bite to her leg.

The walker climbed on top of a parked car until the dogs were secured.

RIACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said the town broke the basic notion of due process by ordering the dogs removed after the initial hearing and stipulations that led the family to invest in all the measures to keep Ozzy and Balou home, describing the town’s actions as a “bait and switch” tactic.

The Miserendinos complied in good faith with the hearing panel’s decision. For North Kingstown to participate in that decision and then upend it is, we believe, unfair, unseemly and illegal.”

Defenders of Animals has also expressed concern about the town ordinance. Director Dennis Tabella said today: “The Vicious Dog Panel process allowed the town of North Kingstown ample opportunity to provide documentation on issues regarding dogs declared vicious. The town seems to be bent on not only destroying these dogs but also devastating a family that values their companion animals.”