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Case Of Bosco The Dog Ends





Bosco

Bosco

The case of Bosco, a mixedbreed pit bull that bit his adopted owner, is at an end.

The case, which started as a routine dog bite, spiraled into the dog being seized by Fulton County sheriff deputies and a Lucas County pit bull rescue group being convicted of a criminal charge.

Bosco bit the hand of the husband of a Wauseon couple that adopted him on Dec. 23, 2015. The wound required two stitches to close.

The couple immediately returned the dog to the Lucas County Pit Crew, from whom the dog was adopted.

Under Ohio law, they couldn’t transfer ownership of the dog until it served a 10-day rabies quarantine. When county officials tried to find the dog, the LCPC was reluctant to release him because of county policy of killing pit bulls, in spite of the fact the county changed its policy in June 2015, and the old policy would not have applied.

Eventually, county sheriff deputies obtained a search warrant to take custody.

The office of Scott Haselman, Fulton County prosecuting attorney, filed misdemeanor criminal charges against the Pit Crew, its executive director, and two volunteers.

Conclusion

In a negotiated plea agreement filed in Western District Court on Thursday, Nov. 10, it was agreed the Pit Crew would plead no contest to one count of interfering with a rabies quarantine and be fined $150, the maximum amount allowed.

Court costs were also assessed.

In return, a charge of obstructing official business and all charges against the executive director and volunteers were dropped.

In a press release issued Friday, Nov. 18, Haselman said he “repeatedly received emails and responses from online petitions from people from around the nation asking that ‘Bosco’ be released from quarantine, and/or held in some location… that was not permitted” under Ohio rabies quarantine law.

While he read only a fraction of the messages, what struck Haselman was while there was concern for the dog, there was very little concern expressed about the man who was bitten.

“Now, people are obviously free to invest their time, passion, and efforts into whatever cause is near and dear to their hearts, but when over 4,000 people take the time to sign a petition about the health and welfare of a dog, and that level of correspondence from third parties greatly and significantly exceeds the correspondence from third parties that we have received at the Fulton County prosecutor office over the last eight years for every case of abused or neglected children, humans who are fighting the burden of drug addiction and on behalf of human victims of crime combined, I believe it is probably the appropriate time for someone to ask that we all reexamine our perspectives about such things,” Haselman said.

“Dogs of all breeds should be treated humanely, and no animal should ever be unnecessarily abused, but I do not believe that we should ever put the health and welfare of any animal above the health and welfare of our fellow human beings.

“I would simply add that, going forward, everyone feel and express as much or more concern for the health and well-being of our human friends and neighbors as we do for the health and well-being of our four-legged friends.”

Bosco Today

Bosco now lives with Kevin and Jacqueline Johnson, Kanab, Utah. She is the manager of the Parrot Garden department of the Best Friends Animal Society, located in Kanab.

“Bosco is a really good boy who is smart and comical. He does have some quirks, and can get overexcited easily,” she said.

“He has amazing dog skills and is best buddies with our girl McCaela the Turtle, who was one of the Fearing Six fighting dogs from Toledo. So our two Buckeyes are besties.

“We have been working with a trainer to help Bosco overcome some fear-based behaviors.

“We are working on impulse control, and he has to sit before we set his bowl down and wait until we tell him ‘okay’.

“He gets so excited his whole body quivers and his little teeth chatter. He reminds me of a little boy who doesn’t want to sit in school, but wants to be running and playing instead.”


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