A death row dog considered dangerous may be getting a reprieve.

Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday he has pardoned Dakota the Alaskan husky from a death sentence levied at a court hearing last week.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney says her office is researching LePage's pardoning power.

Dakota killed a neighbor's pug last year and later broke out of court-ordered confinement to bite the neighbor's Pekingese, which survived. Dakota was ordered held at a shelter and has since been adopted.

LePage says the new owner didn't know about the court hearing.

Pet pardons aren't unprecedented. In 1994, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman saved a Japanese Akita that faced execution.