Hartford
“That’s where we are,” said Marina Silvio, head of the volunteer committee that runs the town-owned dog park. “The self-policing has gone down because the world has gone crazy.”
The meeting, which included members of the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Hartford Police Department, was held at town hall after the Saturday tragedy during which Logan Scelza, an off-duty Hartford police officer, ended a dogfight between his husky and a pit bull by shooting the pit bull four times.
Before killing the dog, which was owned by Lebanon resident John Justin Demers, Scelza tried to physically separate the animals and fired three warning shots into the ground, according to witnesses.
Hartford Police Chief Phil Kasten attended Thursday’s meeting but declined to comment on Scelza’s case, which is the subject of a criminal investigation by Vermont State Police.
The meeting was run by Parks and Recreation Department Executive Director Tad Nunez, who referred people with comments about the actual shooting to the Office of the Town Manager or the Selectboard.
The committee discussion linked the shooting to a broader pattern in which users of the park routinely ignore the rules, according to some participants, while those who try to uphold the rules don’t know how to handle enforcement.
Those rules, which are posted on the park’s website and on a sign at the park, say that dogs must be licensed, at least 4 months of age and in good health.
Dog owners are required to carry a leash in hand, maintain reasonable control of their dog, and remove their dog from the park at the first sign of aggression.
Michelle Grimes, a certified dog instructor who described herself as an unofficial member of the committee, said enforcement is complicated by the fact that many dog owners are eager to defend the actions of their animals.
“Nobody wants to feel like their dog is a bad dog, or that a growl precedes a bite,” Grimes said.
Laura Donica, one of just a few members of the public who attended the meeting, said she stopped using the dog park because her attempts to uphold the park’s rules led her to conflict with users who simply didn’t want to listen.
“If I see someone not following the rules, how do I deal with that?” the Enfield resident asked.
Kasten and committee members generally agreed that the leadership needs to build a culture in which park users speak up about the flouting of rules, and place a call to Hartford police when an initial reminder fails.
One complicating factor is that the park’s rules — such as one that prohibits children under 8 from entering the dog park — routinely are ignored, and that they do not have the force of law, leaving enforcers with few options.
Kasten said police could still intervene, and that if a discussion was unsuccessful at stopping a behavior, the town could revoke that person’s right to use the property, clearing the way for a criminal trespassing charge.
Silvio said some people feel afraid to come into conflict with other dog owners over the rules, while meeting minutes from March show that, in other cases, the would-be enforcers are the problem.
The minutes documented a discussion about a park user who reportedly frightened other users after having seemingly “assigned himself the job of policing the park. He has scolded people for failing to scoop their poop and for ‘speeding’ through the parking lot. … Some have inferred that he is a police impersonator, and that worries them further.”
Formally, the Watson Upper Valley Dog Park Committee is a subcommittee of the town’s Parks and Recreation Commission, but it has largely operated independently, providing volunteers and raising about $3,000 annually for things like plowing, tree removal and dog waste bags.
Nunez said he felt the committee had been doing such a good job of acting independently that it had not received as much support as it should from the town.
“I became complacent,” he said. “You guys have been an island.”
In addition to the thorny issue of enforcement, there also was disagreement about what the rules at the dog park should be.
Meeting participants and members of the public suggested a variety of rules ranging from moderate to extreme.
Suggestions included limiting the number of dogs to one per person; erecting posters that provide instructional graphics to make it easier for dog owners to recognize the signs of an impending dogfight; banning smartphones from the park; teaching people techniques to break up a dogfight, including by swinging the offending dog around in a circle by its hind legs, or cinching a leash around its midsection; banning guns from the park; increasing the police presence; having ambassadors on hand to maintain order; and excluding certain breeds from using the park.
Most of the ideas were panned as impractical (banning dogs on the basis of their breed, Grimes said, would be considered “breedism”), but several will be discussed in greater detail for possible adoption at the next committee meeting, Silvio said.
Meanwhile, the owner of a dog that was involved in a fight with the pit bull in the week before the shooting disputed the pit bull owner’s description of that altercation.
Cheryl Gray, who is housemates with Diesel’s owner in Lebanon and took the dog to Watson dog park about three times a week, acknowledged the tussle in a Monday interview with the Valley News, saying it was the only other time Diesel has had a problem at the park in about two years of going there.
Gray blamed the incident on a Rottweiler, saying it was pushy and that she asked the dog’s female owner to pull it away. Gray said the woman did, but then let go.
The dog lunged for Diesel, Gray said, igniting a fight in which she said the Rottweiler was minorly injured on the leg before the two dogs were separated.
The owner, Dallas Milo, of Weathersfield — who also goes by Dallas Raymond and Dallas Desrosiers in online accounts — disputed the account that appeared in the Tuesday Valley News about the incident involving her dog, Tank, who she described as a Rottweiler-shepherd mix.
When contacted by the Valley News via online chat on Wednesday, Milo said Diesel “bee-lined for (Tank) in the park and then (his owner) tried saying that my dog was being pushy and it was his fault, which it was not.”
Milo said her dog underwent surgery and needed stitches to close “two of the four wounds he suffered” to his right front leg. She said the incident occurred on June 23, the Thursday prior to the shooting.
Another person suggested Scelza’s dogs have been aggressive at the park in the past.
Jason Steele said in an email to the Valley News that he had “run-ins” with Scelza at the dog park twice in the past six months when Steele brought his pit bull there, saying Scelza displayed his badge during the most recent incident.
“My dog was going to defend me (against) those aggressive animals, then he told me I needed to control my dog who was on a leash at the time,” Steele said. “I said, ‘Excuse me, sir, but your dogs are the ones that are being aggressive.’ At that point he flashed his badge and told me to control my dog who was listening to me and his were not.”
Steele said Scelza told him to “get my ass moving before things get worse for me.”
Steele said he hasn’t returned to the dog park “because he made it a point to let me know it didn’t matter, as he is an officer.”
Steele, whose LinkedIn profile says he is a marketing director in Ascutney, also sent the email to Michael Notte, the Vermont State Police officer investigating the shooting.
Several emails and Facebook messages sent to Scelza this week were not returned.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Valley News Staff Writer Maggie Cassidy contributed to this report.