A Chittenden County Superior Court judge has ordered the City of Burlington to impound Franklin County prosecutor Diane Wheeler’s dog, Moose, whom the city has described as “vicious.”
According to an order issued by Judge Samual Hoar following a hearing on Thursday, Wheeler “is ordered to surrender the dog” to a Franklin County kennel or the Burlington Police Department to facilitate transport by 4 p.m. Friday.
In a separate order, which indicated Wheeler had failed to appear at the hearing, Hoar also ordered her to respond to the court within 14 days regarding her appeal of the animal control committee’s original order to give up the dog.
If Moose is not surrendered, the judge wrote in his order, the Burlington Police Department may retrieve it from the Wheeler’s residence or another location. “Due to the reactive nature of the dog, the local kennel typically used by the City for impoundment is not able to accommodate the dog’s needs,” the judge wrote.
As of 2:15 p.m. on Friday, Moose had not arrived at the Highgate Center kennel to which the judge ordered the dog sent, according to a person who answered the phone there.
Wheeler did not respond to an emailed request for comment Friday, nor did she respond to requests for comment last week or early this week for a previous story.
The decision, first reported by Seven Days, comes more than a week after Moose, a 65-pound male brindle mix, attacked a man in Leddy Park, sending him to the emergency room, according to a police report.
The man, Chad Woods, was walking his dog in the park on Sept. 16 when Carol Wheeler, Diane Wheeler’s mother, lost control of Moose’s leash, according to an affidavit signed by a Burlington Police Department community service officer who responded to the incident. Moose ran to attack Woods’ dog, and he was injured when he tried to intervene, according to the affidavit.
The officer met with Carol Wheeler at home the next day and issued her a ticket on Sept. 19.
A group of New North End neighbors has raised concerns about Moose’s behavior with city officials for months, alleging the dog has exhibited aggressive behavior since it was adopted almost two years ago.
But the latest news wasn’t celebratory for Llu Mulvaney-Stanak, one of the neighbors who attended Thursday’s hearing. (Mulvaney-Stanak, a nonprofit leader and former political campaign manager, is the twin sibling of Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.)
“We are relieved about this decision. But, the community danger won’t truly be over until Moose is taken from the Wheelers,” Mulvaney-Stanak said in an email to VTDigger on Friday. “We are also heartbroken that instead of the Wheelers working to rehome the dog, it will be impounded, which may mean the dog is put down. None of us wanted that to happen. In the end, we have all lost here.”
The public dustup began in January, when neighbors from five New North End households wrote a letter to the city’s animal control committee expressing concern about Moose’s behavior. In their complaint, neighbors alleged that over a period of six months, Moose was allowed outside without a leash, charged at neighbors, lunged at other leashed dogs and bit at least one person and two other dogs.
Neighbors said in the complaint that Wheeler refused “to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and shrugs off that this dog is dangerous to the neighborhood.”
“We have reached a point where this is no longer tolerable for our neighborhood,” the neighbors wrote in their complaint. “The dog’s needs are not being met and it is just a matter of time before something much more grave happens, like an attack on a child or a mauling of another dog.”
Burlington police responded to the Wheelers’ home twice in 2023, both for reports of Moose being at-large and barking. Wheeler received a warning and then a municipal ticket.
According to meeting minutes from a March 2024 hearing with the animal control committee, Wheeler said she had taken steps to address the dog’s behavior, including installing an electric garage door, using an electric collar and enlisting the help of a dog trainer. Wheeler indicated that other options, such as muzzling the dog and fencing in her backyard, were not possible.
The committee ordered Wheeler to rehome the dog within 30 days and laid out additional restrictions to follow within the rehoming period.
“Given the repeated and serious nature of the incidents and the remaining options available, the Committee concludes that removing Moose from the Wheeler residence is necessary to protect the public and that no other less severe measure will be sufficient,” the committee wrote.
Wheeler appealed the decision, saying that Moose serves as a support dog for her and her mother, Carol, who is home alone while Diane is at work. Moose, Diane Wheeler said in her appeal, was bitten by another dog at his former home, and he “has bouts of depression with issues of not eating and not drinking” when left with other people.
VTDigger was unable to confirm the dog’s whereabouts as of Friday afternoon.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge orders Burlington to impound ‘vicious’ dog owned by county prosecutor.