Aquinnah selectmen took disciplinary action this week against a dog owner whose Labrador retriever bit a houseguest in the face.
Selectmen learned that a yellow Lab rescue dog, Mac, belonging to Ariana Feldman, bit Benjamin Higgins in the face on Jan. 6 in a social situation, resulting in 32 stitches. Mr. Higgins was visiting Ms. Feldman for dinner. This was the dog’s second biting incident.
Tisbury selectmen were called on last week to mediate a barking dog dispute.
Since last spring Nick Mosey claims he has had to withstand relentless barking from a group of five Shetland sheepdogs on an abutting property on West Spring street. But Mr. Mosey told the selectmen his formative upbringing in postwar London prevented him from contacting the town earlier about the problem.
Vampire bats share blood with sick bats too ill to get their own. Who would have thought? Rats laugh when tickled. Who would have thought? A biologist recounted how his dog followed a cart carrying the body of a mule who had been his companion for 12 years. When the mule was buried, the dog walked slowly over to the grave of his friend and wailed. Who would have thought?
The contentious and sometimes emotional debate over the possible euthanization of two Akitas came to a conclusion this week when the West Tisbury selectmen ordered the animals into the ownership of an off-Island rescue group rather than destroy the dogs. Per the agreement between the town and the dogs’ owners, the dogs are never to return to the Island.
Editors’ note: The following essay written by longtime Oak Bluffs columnist Dorothy West first appeared in the Vineyard Gazette on August 9, 1985.
By DOROTHY WEST
Beachgoers whisking their dogs onto Joseph Sylvia State Beach for a quick spin hoping no one notices may want to think twice this summer — the Dukes County commissioners are calling for a volunteer-based patrol program to help enforce the no-dogs policy.
