WEST BATH, Maine (Tribune News Service) — After an emotional hearing that involved a trip outside to watch dogs interact, a Maine judge ruled Monday that a disabled Air Force veteran’s wolf-hybrid is a “dangerous animal.”
The animal’s fate will be decided at a separate hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Judge Beth Dobson on Monday afternoon found George Boynton, a veteran who is confined to a wheelchair, guilty of keeping a dangerous dog. Boynton had argued that his wolf-hybrid, Myriah, which he said is certified by the federal Veterans Administration as an emotional support animal, did not pose a threat to other pets or people and that the incidents that spurred Monday’s hearing flukes.
He called Myriah “the sunshine of my life.”
Myriah was seized by West Bath Animal Control Officer Todd Stead on Dec. 2 after a neighbor of Boynton’s said the animal had become “aggressive” during several encounters last fall and at one point bit his small dog on the back of the neck.
Boynton was charged with four civil violations, including allowing a dog to run at large, keeping an unlicensed dog, keeping a dangerous dog and keeping an unlicensed wolf-hybrid.
Friends and other wolf-hybrid owners sat through Monday’s trial, awaiting the ruling that eventually came shortly after 1 p.m. Dobson ruled that Myriah does qualify as a dangerous dog — although she qualified, “It was certainly one of the lesser dangerous dog [findings].”
She also ruled that Boynton was guilty on two of the other charges.
What happens to Myriah now will be decided Wednesday afternoon at West Bath District Court. Sagadahoc County Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Liberman said options range from returning the animal to Boynton with the requirement that she be harnessed, to the possibility that she would be euthanized — although Liberman said he welcomes any other solution.
Stead seized Myriah in December after Boynton’s neighbor told police that he had encountered Myriah unleashed on several occasions last fall and that the dog had “attacked” his dog on Nov. 10.
On Monday, the neighbor told Dobson that he was walking the 14-year-old beagle mix on a leash in September and then again in October when they saw Boynton’s son, Marc, walking with Myriah, who not on a leash.
During the October incident, Myriah “attacked my dog,” the neighbor testified. “She came prancing up, crouches down low, then growls, and then darted at [his dog]. I remember telling [Marc Boynton] that I thought it was very dangerous and I tried to convince him to take it seriously and do something about it.”
During a subsequent incident on Nov. 10, according to the neighbor, “all of a sudden the dog comes rushing at us, crouches down low, lets out a low-pitched guttural growl and bites my dog on the back of the neck.”
Veterinarian Julie Greenlaw, who lives in the same neighborhood, testified Monday that she went to the neighbor’s home the day after the most serious attack and found a “raised area … that was sensitive.”
Greenlaw also said that Boynton’s pet had previously “chased” her while she was running and “made me a little uncomfortable.”
Boynton’s attorney, Randy Robinson, asked if the neighbor would have been able to tell if Myriah was playing, and asked, “Can you competently distinguish between one type of growl and another?”
“I certainly have an emotional reaction,” the neighbor responded, adding later, “Yes, I thought it was serious. Yes, I felt my dog was in danger.”
He told the court that he stood in Myriah’s path and tried to block her — which Marc Boynton later argued Myriah may have interpreted as “an invitation to play.”
Arguing against the other charges, Robinson said that Myriah isn’t actually a wolf-hybrid, and that Boynton had been duped when he replied to an ad in “Uncle Henry’s.” But Liberman said Boynton had referred to the animal as a wolf-hybrid on many occasions, including on social media, and Sarah Rowe of Bath Animal Hospital testified that Boynton and his now ex-wife, Roberta, wrote on paperwork that Myriah was “a wolf mix.”
Liberman said that regardless of complicated and changing laws about licensing wolf-hybrids, Boynton was responsible for doing so, and failed.
West Bath Town Clerk Brandi Lohr and James Connolly of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife both said they had no record of Boynton registering the animal.
Boynton argued that he sent the state copies of required vaccination, tattoo, spay and microchip documents when they bought Myriah in 2011, but were told “the process” was being changed and “they’d get back to us.”
“Our last contact with IF&W was a call from our house to their office checking to make sure they received our documentation and asking if they needed anything else, and being told, ‘No, we have everything we need. If we need anything else, we’ll contact you.’”
Prior to Dobson’s verdict, George Boynton said, “She’s the sunshine in my life every single day, even when my life doesn’t have a whole lot of sunshine anymore.”
Finding Boynton not guilty of keeping an unlicensed wolf-hybrid, Dobson said she found that Boynton did seem to have attempted to license the animal, and added that the steps to do so seemed “vague.”
She found him guilty of the other three charges, and fined Boynton a total of $350 for the offenses.
The ruling left members of Boynton’s family and several supporters in tears, and left Boynton disheartened.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” he said outside the courtroom, adding that Myriah had not seen justice. “Being a war vet, I’ve got a few extra stressors I have to work against. She always manages to know just when to brush up against me … I still put my faith in God and my trust in the judiciary of this state that they won’t let this happen.”
Liberman said Myriah will remain at Coastal Humane Society at least until Wednesday. He said he continues to explore options for the animal, and would speak to officials at DIF&W and the town of West Bath before Wednesday’s hearing.
Outside the courtroom, Brenda Foster, who operates Runs With Wolves Sanctuary in Limington, said she would happily care for Myriah. And dog trainer Jamie Brinkman, who has just moved in with Boynton and his housemate as a caregiver, has offered to care for Myriah with her two dogs, which also require “an enormous amount of exercise” that she said might quell “any aggressiveness.”
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