By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
10/9/08

(previous)
She called the incident “distressing” due to the fact that the leash law wasn’t being enforced.
Dave Wahlgren, manager of Cunnigham Park, said the security does its best to enforce the law.
“There are signs posted all around the park,” he said. “We have someone patrolling the park from 12 noon to 12 midnight.”
Cunningham Park is private property not connected with the town. It is open to Milton residents.
Shea described the ordeal of bringing a dog-bitten member of her family to the emergency room.
“We didn’t know if the dogs had rabies or what,” Shea said.
At the emergency room, she said she met a man who was also bit by a dog at Cunningham.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “He was real nice and told us we should speak up about this, so we exchanged phone numbers.”
She said friends and family immediately “went into action” in attempt to track down the dogs’ owner.
“It’s shocking to me that he would run off without helping,” she said.
Animal Control Officer Linda Kippenberger says the dog owner, reportedly a Quincy man, was later found and one of his dogs was quarantined.
She called the incident “unfortunate” but said dog bites are not all that uncommon.
“It’s not a rarity. There are any number of animal bites every year,” she said. “It sounds like in some cases the leash law doesn’t have real good oversight.”
Health Director Michael Blanchard agreed that bite incident figures are “fairly consistent” from year to year.
According to Blanchard, there have been nine biting incidents reported since July 1. There were 58 incidents reported last year and 53 two years ago.
Shea said she doesn’t want to criticize the town but wants to make sure the parks remain safe.
“It is great that so many family and friends went into action,” she said. “I just want to see things get better.”
She suggested having fenced-in areas at the parks for unleashed pets, as “other towns and cities have done.”