Wicomico County woman fights to keep her dog alive

her dog alive after she says he was wrongfully taken from her following a ruling by the county health department. 47 abc’s julian sadur has been researching the story and now joins us live from the health department — julian? dave – dawn o’connell says the health department deemed her dog dangerous – took it away – and was set to euthanize it before she appealed the decision. the problem is though — the county may not have had the right to do any of this according to its own laws. he’s amazing intelligent, such a sweet dog, so he doesn’t deserve to be sitting there 46 “doesnt deserve to be put down ” no, no, not at all track dawn o’connell of parsonsburg is talking about her beloved dog bruiser — who’s currently being kept in a part of the wicomico county humane society where no visitors are allowed. this all started last week — o’connell says bruiser broke out of his muzzle last week and attacked another one of the o’connell dogs — shiloh. police — already at the house responding to a domestic dispute — called animal control — after seeing what they identified as dog blood on the ground. shiloh was taken to animal e-r – but it wasn’t until this week the county came for bruiser. the dogs are going off i come out and here’s animal control here, allison marine from the health department, aaron the director for animal control was here telling me i had to turn him over they were deeming him dangerous track the county took bruiser away – leaving o’connell with this letter saying bruiser was deemed a dangerous dog — and would be quarantined pending euthanization. that’s when o’connell enlisted the help of lenore bennett – a local expert when it comes to violent canines. bennett says according to county code — the county had no right to even deem the dog dangerous — let alone sentence him to death. chapter 133 section 7 reading no dog may be declared dangerous if the injury or damage sustained by another domestic animal occurred while on the premises occupied by the owner or keep of the animal. 140051 its sad that the county may have not donehings properly in this case, okay, but to complicate it shes going to have to pay for it, the dogs going to have to possibly pay for with his life, she’s going to have to pay for the boarding fee 140104 track that boarding fee – 20 dollars a day. o’connell says she’ll pay it — and that she has appealed the decision to the county. the county says right now they won’t comment on the story – til the appeal hearing is held. right now bruiser won’t be put down before the appeal hearing. now if and when o’connell does get bruiser back – she says a family member has agreed to take him in – so there will be no chance of bruiser and shiloh fighting again. back to you dave. thanks julian. of course we’ll continue to follow the story to see what happens at that appeal hearing. also in wicomico county — the trial for accused