Valley News – An autopsy and selectboard decision close the case on a Vermont dog attack

An autopsy and decision by the Calais Selectboard have offered new insight into a dog attack that sparked heated debate in Calais, Vt., last month.

A resident filed a complaint against two dogs who he said bit him, one of whom was found dead in a ditch later that night.

After Mark Whitman filed the complaint under the town’s dog ordinance against Elsa Ingpen’s two Great Pyrenees, Trixie and Paddington, the Calais Selectboard held a public hearing on May 25 to collect testimony on what to do about Trixie, the surviving dog.

While the selectboard made clear that it could not investigate the deceased dog’s death, multiple residents expressed concern that Whitman might have been violent toward the dog, after Ingpen had alleged that Paddington had been beaten to death.

Since then, however, Anne Winchester, chair of the Calais Selectboard, said an autopsy conducted by Onion River Animal Hospital revealed no sign that Paddington experienced trauma, concluding that the cause of his death is unknown.

Veterinarians wrote in the autopsy report that porcupine quills were found in Paddington’s snout, although it was unclear whether this contributed to his death.

In the meantime, Winchester said, the selectboard reached a decision regarding the dog incident, deeming Trixie — who was also found with a “a mouth full” of porcupine quills, according to the selectboard decision — to be “potentially vicious” and closing the case.

According to the town dog ordinance, Trixie could have been found to be “vicious” — in which case she might have been required to be put down — or merely a “nuisance,” in which case Ingpen would be asked to pay a $50 fine.

According to the selectboard, Trixie has been found to be “potentially vicious” because she was found to have bitten someone unprovoked.

Winchester said that, after the board’s decision, lngpen received a notice requiring her to pay the Calais town government a $50 fine for a first offense against the town dog ordinance. According to the order, lngpen will also be required to install spring-loaded, self-closing locks on all the gates of the enclosure where Trixie is kept, leash Trixie with a no-pull collar while walking her and increase the height of the fence enclosing Trixie if she is found running at-large again.

According to Winchester, the decision about Trixie came earlier than expected. At the hearing on May 25, the board members had voted to extend the hearing to June 26 out of concern that they didn’t have enough information to make a decision. Since then, Winchester said, the board members changed their minds.

“We found that when we got into deliberative session, we did have all the information, so we formally adjourned the hearing last Monday,” Winchester said.