Bosco's New Day In Court...

Bosco's attorney and owner appeared in court yesterday, March 21. They pled not guilty to all charges and the hearing was moved forward to April 12. This will allow Bosco's attorney, Jim O'Roarke, time for "discovery", which means he will get to see exactly what the police department is going to allege against Bosco and his owner.

The police chief, Joseph Roark, has been misstating that Bosco bit a little girl in the face during the alleged Christmas tree incident, so it will be interesting to see if he persists in that characterization! There will be no documentation to support that claim.

The hearing is a bit confusing because it involves more than simply Bosco's right to live. The town is prosecuting Bosco's owner for violating state dog control and nuisance dog laws. And they are asking the court to authorize them to kill Bosco as part of that prosecution.

The town of Pelham does not have to get a court order to allow Bosco to come to the sanctuary. This is in the courts because the police department and its chief are determined that Bosco should pay with his life, even though Sgt Pickles should never have tried to pick up a strange dog without the Animal Control Officer, and the alleged bite of the little girl is in dispute, since the father denied that she had been bitten to Bosco's insurance company! Neither party had a serious injury resulting from the alleged bites.

These incidents do not rise to the level of justifying the killing of Bosco!

Our job is to convince the town of Pelham that Bosco has many, many supporters and convince the decision makers in Pelham that Bosco deserves a chance to live out his life at the sanctuary. We have to go over the head of Chief Roark who has dug in his heels and nothing short of Bosco's death will satisfy him.

We need to convince town administrator, Tom Gaydos, to whom the chief reports, that the chief is not thinking clearly and is allowing his emotion to get in the way of rational thought, regarding Bosco.

Please continue to send emails to Tom Gaydos and the Lowell Sun at the addresses below. (I have included the email address of Chief Roark because many have asked for it. I can tell you from first hand experience trying to work with the chief that it is useless endeavor. He is not interested in facts. His mind is made up and he wants Bosco dead.)

Here are the contacts and their email addresses. Remember to be brief, polite, respectful! That is how we will help Bosco!

Tom Gaydos, town administrator - townadmin@pelhamweb.com

Joseph Roark, police chief - jroark@pelhampolice.com

Lowell Sun newspaper - http://www.lowellsun.com//writetobacktalk

Thank you for calling and emailing yesterday! I am certain they were surprised by the sheer numbers of people across the nation who care about what happens to Bosco.