(NECN: Kristen Carosa) – In Spencer, Mass., a dog owner is at odds with the town over his two pets deemed dangerous. The town has ordered him to surrender his dogs, or they will come and get them.
“Why are we living in fear,” asks neighbor Bruce Terry. “This should be taken care of.”
Terry says he doesn't leave his house without worrying about two dogs down he calls vicious living just down the street.
“Whenever we are outside, the dogs are there. They come to the edge of the yard and they growl and they bark; they are vicious; they scare they heck out of my grandchildren,” he says.
Terry’s next door neighbor on Cranberry Lane in Spencer, Mary Anne Alexander, says one of the dogs bit her husband in 2011.
“He was covered in blood; his jeans were torn open; his shirt was torn open; he was bit all over his torso; he was bit on his legs; he will have scars until the day he dies,” Alexander says.
Since then, neighbors have asked the owners to secure the dogs but they say they have refused.
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The town says letters were sent to the dog's owners requesting things like leashes and muzzling them.
Without any getting response, the town held four public hearings.
Police say the owners still did nothing. This week, the town ordered the dogs be impounded by animal control.
“What we want is a little piece of mind,” Alexander says. “We want to be able to go out into the yard and not worry about being attacked.”
The dog owners, Robert Norris and Jaime Martel weren't home Thursday and the dogs were nowhere to be found.
According to police, Norris has allegedly taken the dogs out of the state.
“We never wanted the dogs gone because we understand they love them, we have all had dogs,” says Alexander.
According to police, even though the dogs are gone, they are still pursuing the owners through the court system.
Terry says their neighborhood is close knit and never intended for this to end this way.
“This did not have to come to this,” Terry says. “All they had to do is tie up the dogs so we aren't fearful. Case closed.”
