Staff writer
A Peabody woman who three times has been accused of letting her dogs run free is appealing a ruling that she pick her dogs up from boarding and not return them to Peabody or else they will be adopted out.
Terri Tucker was ordered Jan. 12 to pay $265 for having two dogs at large. She pleaded no contest in exchange for dismissal of two charges of no proof of vaccination and two charges of having dogs with no city tags.
The charges stemmed from a citation issued June 6.
Municipal judge Brad Jantz also ordered Tucker to pick up her dogs, which were caught running free again Dec. 24, from Countryaid Vet Service at Whitewater, where police chief Bruce Burke had boarded them after he had to chase them down for the third time during 2021.
Jantz ordered Tucker to pick them up by Jan. 14 and not bring them back to Peabody. He ruled that if she did not pick the dogs up by that date, the city would take custody of them and either adopt them out or take them to a no-kill animal shelter because of Tucker’s repeated citations for dogs at large.
After the June 6 citation was issued, Burke picked up Tucker’s dogs two additional times during 2021.
The first two times, Burke returned them to Tucker. When he picked up three of her dogs Dec. 24, he boarded them instead.
By Jan. 12, when Jantz ordered her to pick up the dogs within two days, they had been at Countryaid 19 days. The boarding charge already totaled $570.
Burke said Tuesday that two other citations, one issued in October and the other on Dec. 24, still have not yet been resolved in municipal court.
“The last word I had, she had called Countryaid and assumed boarding costs,” Burke said. “I have not heard whether she has picked them up. I have not seen them in town.”
Tucker’s appeal to district court puts Jantz’s order to pay her fine or appear in municipal court Feb. 9 on hold until the district court rules on her appeal.
In her appeal, she contends the cost of the fine is an undue financial burden.
A status conference is set for Feb. 9.
Some elements of this story were misstated in an article in last week’s newspaper.