BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
SAUGUS — After her baby was bitten by a dog inside Town Hall, Leigh Gerow wants signs prohibiting non-service dogs from entering the building.
“My concern is that they have events that happen on the second floor of that building,” Gerow said. “There are movie nights, family ice cream nights. We’re members of this community but we won’t attend any of those events. There’s no guarantee that that dog isn’t going to be there.”
Gerow said her husband, Christopher Gerow, and daughter, who she asked not to be named, visited Town Hall in February so Christopher could register to vote.
Her daughter, then 18 months old, walked with Christopher into the Town Clerk’s office. Because the doors are wooden on the bottom and glass on the top, Christopher was unaware that a dog was on the other side of the door, she said.
“My daughter was walking ahead, he was holding her hand,” Gerow said. “When he opened the door, the dog ambushed her. My husband grabbed the dog and pushed the dog off my daughter.”
The dog attempted to attack the baby for a second time, Gerow said.
A police report filed the next day with the Saugus Police Department cited the dog’s owner as Peter Manoogian, vice-chairman of the School Committee.
Harold Young, the animal control officer, said in February that the dog was on a leash, vaccinated and licensed at the time it bit the child. The dog was then quarantined to its residence for 10 days, which Young said was routine.
The baby, who was bitten in the face, was sedated and received 10 stitches a half-inch below her eye at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“It isn’t so much the size as it is the depth,” Gerow said. “She needed a plastic surgeon to make sure that it was fixed right.”
Gerow said her daughter is a fun, happy, almost two-year-old, but she has suffered a trauma. While she waves at dogs from a distance, the child is fearful to approach them.
About a month ago, Gerow asked that signs be hung at Town Hall prohibiting non-service dogs from entering the building. But the solution was not so simple.
“I’m not too familiar with the political structure, but I learned it has to go through Town Meeting,” she said.
Scott Brazis, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen, declined to offer an opinion on Gerow’s plan, saying it’s up to Town Meeting.
Town Manager Scott Crabtree declined comment and referred the call to the town’s attorney.
John Vasapolli, town counsel, said dogs are allowed in public buildings.
To adopt a bylaw to prohibit them, an article would have to be proposed and submitted to the Board of Selectmen, and voted on in the next special Town Meeting.
Gerow said she is drafting a proposal with a Town Meeting member from her precinct.
Manoogian sent the baby flowers after the attack, and seemed to be remorseful, Gerow said. She said she is hopeful Manoogian might help her by supporting the adoption of a bylaw.
“I don’t want to go in and have to beg for it,” Gerow said. “I feel like the Town Hall should have taken some of that responsibility.”
Manoogian could not be reached for comment.
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.
