Boone County dog not a nuisance after biting incident
On Monday, a dog accused of biting a man with Down syndrome was cleared by the Boone County health director.
Director Stephanie Browning confirmed with ABC 17 News that she found the dog, Barney, neither a nuisance nor vicious.
Barney was shot by a woman in early April after Boone County deputies said he bit the woman’s son, Tylor.
Deputies called Boone County Animal Control to respond to the incident and the dog’s owner, Regina Buckler, received a citation to attend a hearing regarding her dog.
That hearing happened Monday.
According to the Boone County Animal Control Ordinance, an advisory board appointed by the Boone County Commission evaluates evidence against dogs like Barney that are claimed to be vicious or a nuisance and makes recommendations on their classification and disposition to the health director.
The board is made up of “one licensed veterinarian, one animal control officer, one member from the
Boone County Board of Health, one member from the public with a working knowledge of dogs, and one member of the public at large.”
The ordinance defines a nuisance dog as repeatedly showing “threatening behavior by growling, lunging, chasing, or baring teeth, toward an individual or individuals, or bicyclists, or motor vehicles, or domesticated animals or livestock off the Owner’s property.”
A vicious dog “without provocation or command, demonstrates a pattern of unequivocal viciousness, bites or injures a human being or exhibits a pattern of behavior of biting or attacking or attempting to bite or attack.”
Browning told ABC 17 News that even though Barney was deemed not vicious or a nuisance, she strongly suggested Buckler to build a larger fence that connects to the door so Barney can’t run off her property.
