On the evening of Sunday, February 23 I was arrested in the street in front of my Effingham home after I refused to voluntarily relinquish our livestock guardian dogs [both of whom were rescued under threat of euthanasia for not being companion animals(!!)] to the police for impoundment and euthanasia.
Go Fund Me: Save the Rescue Dogs
***** WE NEED TO RAISE MONEY TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY ***** RESIDUAL MONEY WILL GO TO THE MAREMMA SHEEPDOG RESCUE FUND ***** THE RESCUE HAS ASSURED ME THAT IF THE DOGS ARE IMPOUNDED THE RESCUE CAN INTERVENE AND KEEP THE DOGS ALIVE.
I fully expect the police to return with a search and seizure warrant to enter my property and seize our dogs. Our crime? They bark at predators at night and run any threat to stock or human to the edge of the farm property, which is allowed by law for guardian dogs in New Hampshire.
Why? The neighbors do not like our guardian dogs or how they do their job protecting our horses and other livestock. Although the neighbors acknowledged on camera that the dogs have a statutory right to bark as part of their duties, he claims they are *not* guardians.
The ACO said the dogs were aggressive to her. Of course they were, she was trying to seize them, illicitly.
Our dogs have never attacked another dog or human. Ever. But Coyotes, wolves, and wildcat beware.
Four nights ago the dogs protected the horses from a pack of coyotes who had just felled a 150-160lb doe, and the barking was fierce. Mob rules in Effingham and they want our dogs to pay the price.
We are moving the dogs in the morning, but without the dogs, our horses are at risk of predation, and we may have to stable them away from our wilderness home.
Any money beyond the cost of an attorney will be donated back to Maremma Sheepdog Rescue to help keep this breed alive.
The Full Story
The neighbor in the video is a special friend of Selectman Henry Spencer and the now-retired Chief of Police. He along with three other neighbors spent the next few months engaged in what can only be described as a reign of terror against me and my family: they had me arrested and dragged into court on trumped-up charges, and both the Chief and said neighbor lied under oath to affect a conviction, all to attempt to get rid of my dogs by ignoring my rights and trying to find any other way to get the dogs gone.
While the wheels of justice turn at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office, the new Chief has decided to double down and wants to seize and destroy the dog I saved from euthanasia over three years ago and our latest rescue, a beautiful boy from Colorado who was unhappy as a companion animal.
Tuesday, February 18 there was a huge ruckus in the back forty of our farm, and the dogs ran up into the backwoods, ostensibly to scare off or kill a predator. What we found the next morning was two red spattered dogs and a trail of blood … not theirs. Evidently, a pack of coyotes had killed a 150-160lb doe less than 200 feet from our horse paddock (show with the youngster who is himself about 150lb) :
This doe was larger than our small shetland pony, and just a bit smaller than our Irish Sport horse. The dogs continued to scare off the scavengers for two more nights until they dragged the carcass(!!) towards the back paddock to show us their handiwork.
The noise did not go unnoticed and we had police at our farm eleven times in two days on various spurious reasons like the cars weren’t parked right. They were casing our farm.
This evening, Sunday, February 23, just after dark, the new Chief showed up with the Animal Control Officer to seize (and destroy) our dogs and arrested me for barking dogs (NH RSA 466:31). The dogs ran back towards the horses to protect them, and the police declined to trespass onto our property to affect the seizure. They wanted me to hand the dogs over to them. Nope. No way. No How.
I’m trying to figure out how they can justify seizing my dogs. I was arrested. And now we are afraid for all of our animals.
In early September 2016, I had the opportunity to rescue three Maremma Sheepdog Livestock Guardian Dogs from a breeder hoarding situation about two hours from my New Hampshire farm. These dogs were losing their home, and the last four of over twenty-two dogs were under threat of euthanasia.
Livestock Guardians are not companion animals; they imprint on the stock they are trained to guard and will lay down their lives to save their stock. Maremmas are a breed from the Apennines in Italy, a breed that is approximately 10,000 years old, one of the earliest domesticated breeds, a dual-purpose shepherd and guardian, who live full time with their charges. Rehoming a guardian is very difficult as they are wary of strange humans.
We chose to give these dogs a second chance because a few months earlier we lost two 100lb+ goats to an unknown predator on our twenty rural acres. I had considered getting puppies and decided that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain in attempting a rescue.
So, I loaded up my farm van with large cages and muzzles and drove into the night, and loaded three 125lb+ frightened dogs who had never had a car ride before into said van and brought them home.
Within three days of their arrival, the Chief of Police showed up at my home with Child Protective Services to take my children, because I had “vicious” dogs. It went downhill from there.
Seven arrests, three trials and thousands of dollars later, I still have one of the original rescue dogs, and just got another less than three weeks ago. We also have a Maremma raised from a puppy. These dogs work as a team to guard not only the horses, but our [rescue] chickens, barn cats, children, and whatever goats we have at any given time from things that growl in the night.
New Hampshire has one of the strongest Right To Farm statutes in the nation, and specifically, livestock guardians and other working dogs are protected from the barking regulations and the “at-large” regulations, a distinction that the New Hampshire Attorney General has acknowledged. However, in practice individual town police departments prosecute cases with no oversight and have the power to interpret the law any way they see fit.
The new Chief has doubled down and wants these dogs destroyed.
If this drags out and the dogs are seized, we will prevail in the end, but the dogs would be gone. Gone. These beautiful dogs.
New Chief was surprised I didn’t just hand over the dogs and instead allowed myself to be arrested. After all, he said, “it’s only a dog”.
Only a dog? No, these dogs are family and an integral part of our farm.
Please help. (Go Fund Me: Save the Rescue Dogs)
by Kate Belisle
Effingham, NH
