Town of Wolcott, VT Select Board Meeting May 15, 2024

Town of Wolcott, VT Select Board Meeting May 15, 2024 at 6:00pm EDT.

[@joyceholsten2519]

That whole hearing was so disappointing. The dog owner smiling and laughing and showing no remorse. She failed to mention her friends harassing Harmony Farm Sanctuary on Instagram. Harmony Farm never gave out their names or address on social media. That is a blatant lie by the dog owner. I'm so glad she is moving. What a terrible person. Good riddance. The town needs to do more with these leash laws. There should have been a big fine for what those dogs did. Again, the bad guys seem to be winning.

[@polish_king98]

Thank you for your support. The harassment is totally on another level. Laughing, harassing, leaving town and not agreeing to reimburse in any fashion. Just cruel and unfair.

[@Lepluie11]

Sorry does not cut it. An amount should be agreed upon and monthly installments made at the least with the obvious control she needs to get for the dogs. Ridiculous

[@TheRussellStover]

Go to small claims court and lien the person's home for the cost of the vet bill.

[@Lepluie11]

Absolutely horrible. She seems so nonchalant about it. If u don’t have money to cover the damage your dogs are doing then don’t have them bc clearly you cannot keep them under control.

[@izakbarnes7167]

Not only that if she doesn’t have money to pay for the damages then how tf is she moving in the first place 😂

[@polish_king98]

For the record, I’m the son of the sanctuary operators. This is totally uncool and the fact that she’s leaving town and avoiding accountability is so frustrating for my family. I grieve with them throughout all of this. These animals are not “property”. They are individuals, not objects. To the dog owners, take this more seriously. Everyone’s eyes are on you to do the right thing. Please, just take accountability. Do the right thing.

[@dlp9009]

The only positive thing here is the lady admits complete responsibility. That can be used in court. I would go ahead and file a case now as I'm not thinking she'll be responsible. She needs to start payments now. I'd hate for her to get away and you not be able to collect anything. It'll be totally on you to hunt her down should she takeoff and disappear. Even if you're ordered to do mediation, you'll have a legal remedy that can be used. It would seem some ordinance was probably broken here so I think the town should have sought something as a consequence. She's a completely irresponsible dog owner! It's telling when there's talk about some not even wanting to walk near these dogs. They have a history and if she's a responsible owner she should consider alternatives with her dogs since she can't seem to control them.

[@Andrea-Loves-Life]

Maybelle had a billion times the heart that this dog owner has.

[@laceygodin3489]

This is more than sickening! I would have hoped Wolcott would have done better for the protection of our people as well as our animals in this community.

[@lizedwards158]

“I haven’t been up there to meet the dogs” wow. The gross incompetence of the entire town is showing. I’ll just go ahead and mark this as a place I never want to visit.

[@caseycarpenter7671]

The ACO didn't even do his job and go to the house and meet the dogs??? People weren't attacked to begin with. The concern is not toward people it's to livestock and other animals. Was she even aware her dogs got out???

[@ONX12]

Do better Wolcott!

[@janetomes]

The way i read the law is someone may kill the attacking dog/s when they are in the middle of an attack - of another animal or human. I see this as you may act in self-defense, or in defense of the animal that is being attacked. So for the owner of the dogs who attacked the goat,sheep and cows to say the sanctuary owner could have killed her dogs - and questioned him re NOT killing them - is at the least disingenuous. Since the sanctuary guardian-owner did not come upon the dogs until after the attacks, so after his goat was already dead and the others injured, i believe he would have been breaking the law. The law does not say you can retaliate AFTER, or punish or "make the dogs pay," or make the dogs owner pay for letting them loose by killing her dogs in retaliation. Yet, around the country we see people do this all the time. That is malice aforethought in my mind. The sanctuary owners are not the governor of South Dakota ..as a starter. And the town of Cabot doesn’t want her with her not taking responsibility for her dogs either. She needs to 100% be in compliance with leashing, training muzzling etc.

[@polish_king98]

It goes against the moral philosophy for my parents to kill animals anyways. It’s based on an animal owner’s control of their dogs/cats/etc. Thank you for your comment. Yes, it’s about restraint, responsibility and accountability. Spot on.

[@jamiesherman2302]

This is quite sad, how would the board feel if it was one of their children? She seems so insincere

[@Harmonyfarmsanctuaryvt]

I feel embarrassed for the town of wolcott for how this was handled. I’m not sure what exactly this hearing was about, but there was no leader ship whatsoever.

[@polish_king98]

Wow, this is very disappointing!

[@Uglakona]

And thats it? She moves hopefully far away from children and you hope after two incidents no human gets harmed? She can joke and laugh about her dogs going rampant and harass a sanctuary online and face no consequences? The whole world is laughing about this city, but in the “oh uncle Frank is drunk again” way. Such authority. 😮‍💨

[@principessamarina9451]

what did the dog owner say her name was? Dane Elizabeth?

[@jamiesherman2302]

As many issues my home town of Bennington has, at least they would have taken care of this

[@elainaservi8295]

Anyone know what breed the dogs are?

[@elainaservi8295]

What breed are the dogs?

[@kimhillmer2217]

This is a very disappointing