A handmade sign near Laurie and Karl Knight's driveway that reads "Warning: Dog Killer Ahead" tells passers-by how the Knights feel about their neighbor who lives seven-tenths of a mile up Route 69.
The neighbor, David Pomeroy, recently was convicted of cruelty to animals and ordered to pay a $600 fine in addition to $1,000 restitution for killing the Knights' two dogs.
In late July 2006 the couple received the $1,000 check from the district attorney's office. They recently got two new puppies, but the couple said no dogs, and no amount of money, can replace Sadie, a 2-year-old black Labrador retriever, or Grizzy, a scrappy, 5-year-old 20-pound terrier mix, their pets who were shot to death in February.
"We got nothing," Karl Knight said. "We got two dead dogs, that's what we got. I lost two of my family members."
"We never had kids," Laurie Knight added. "Our dogs are like children to us."
Maine laws are specific regarding the killing of dogs. An owner whose livestock are being attacked by a dog may kill the dog. An adult owner of a dog may shoot the dog as long as ammunition is of a caliber suitable to produce instantaneous death by a single shot; death is instantaneous; any restraint of the animal does not cause suffering; and precautions are taken to protect the general public and other animals.
The Knights said they have never met Pomeroy, their neighbor who contacted the game warden to report that he had shot the two dogs. In his statement to the Maine Warden Service, Pomeroy wrote that he first shot Grizzy, whom he mistook for a coyote, and then he shot Sadie as well.
"I was out back of my house hunting coyote when I saw three deer come running across the woods road," Pomeroy wrote. "There was what I thought to be a coyote right behind chasing them. Then I shot it but (it) turned out to be a dog. ... I also shot the black dog for chasing deer."
Wardens could not substantiate whether there were deer in the area at the time of the shootings.
But Maine law permits only a game warden to kill a dog for chasing deer unless the dog's owner has been given written notice of evidence that the dog has chased or killed a deer, according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
"If that dog has been chasing or pursuing moose or deer in closed season and the game warden has given prior written notice to the owner of that dog that that has happened, then anyone can shoot the dog," Latti said.
The warden who investigated the Detroit case plans to request a hearing on whether Pomeroy's right to obtain a hunting license should be revoked, he said, a process independent of criminal court proceedings.
Dogs may be man's best friends, but they also frequently become bones of contention between neighbors.
For example, rarely is there a day when police do not receive complaints about neighbors' dogs barking excessively, according to Waterville Police Chief John Morris.
"I totally understand, because there's nothing more aggravating than a dog that barks consistently and won't stop barking," Morris said. "But sometimes we also get complaints when a dog only barks twice."
Sometimes disputes over dogs can turn ugly.
Kennebec-Somerset District Attorney Evert Fowle said some people believe, incorrectly, that it is legal to kill a dog that wanders onto their property.
The major exception, he said, is in cases in which dogs attack chickens or other farm animals.
"Someone is allowed to take reasonable steps to protect their livestock," he said.
Fowle said if a person is convicted of felony aggravated cruelty to animals, prosecutors may request lengthy jail terms followed by probation, with one condition of probation being the defendant may not possess firearms.
But, he said, most animal cruelty cases are misdemeanors in Maine, unless there is evidence of "deliberate, wanton cruelty," which elevates the crime to a felony category. That classification is limited to more egregious cases, such as that of a man who deliberately drove his truck over his girlfriend's pregnant cat that was about to give birth, he said.
Fowle estimated his office prosecutes about five people per year for cruelty to animals.
"People go to jail a lot for cruelty to animals," he said. "Study after study shows that people willing to mistreat an animal are also willing to mistreat human beings...It's not that I'm a member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), but virtually every social scientific study that's ever been done indicates that if they're capable of cruelty to animals, they're capable of cruelty toward human beings."
The Detroit case didn't meet legal criteria for felony charges, he said.
"I did not see evidence of deliberate, wanton cruelty," Fowle said. "I did see extremely poor judgment and irresponsibility. ... I think he deliberately shot the animals and he evidently believed he had some justification, but that was extremely poor judgment." Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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