West Tisbury Delays Decision to Destroy Akitas

Last week West Tisbury selectmen reversed their decision to ban two Akitas from the Island and the pair. That decision was reversed again after a special meeting on Saturday with selectmen and the dog owners’ attorney.

Taggart Young of West Tisbury and Anna Bolotovsky of Newton, MA own the two young dogs, named Zion and Sensi. The dogs killed neighboring farmer Richard Andre’s livestock three times in three months after getting loose from their owner's property.

Selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd remains in favor of euthanizing the dogs and selectman Cynthia Mitchell was not in attendance at the special meeting on Saturday. Selectmen Richard Knabel decided not to sign the order and explained the turnaround was due to newly formed efforts to save the dogs.

“Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, I became aware of an inchoate rescue effort to save the Akitas. It involved placing the two nine-month old dogs with different, more responsible owners in appropriate environments. I felt this potential solution to this complex problem was worth the time it might take for it to fully form. Therefore, I would not agree to sign the order on Saturday to kill the one dog. That the order would, essentially only affect one dog is part of the complexity of the situation. Whether an effort to rescue the dogs will ultimately succeed I don’t know, but basically I don’t believe in superficially simple solutions to nuanced problems, and I think fairness to all concerned, including the Akitas, should be our goal.”

The dogs first attacked Andre’s livestock in early November and the dog owners were ordered to build the dogs a chain link enclosure and pay $150 to Andre, which they did. However the chain link enclosure did not keep the dogs from getting out two more times.

As a result, on February 1, the selectmen voted to ban the dogs from the Island forever. However, that decision was reversed one week later after Young attempted to remove Zion from Animal Health Care without the selectmen's permission.