SWAMPSCOTT — Three pet pit bulls that were involved in two separate dog attacks in town were declared dangerous by the Select Board Wednesday night.

The unanimous determination was made during the town’s first “dangerous dog” hearing, which included hours of testimony from victims, witnesses, the dogs’ owners, the town’s animal control officer and the investigating detective, Ted Delano.

Although board members were definitive on their opinion that the three dogs belonging to Glenn and Irene Schwartz, of 50 Puritan Lane, meet the state statute’s definition of a “dangerous dog,” perhaps the lack of precedent for the situation led to the board’s prolonged debate about what enforcement action should be taken.

When all was said and done, Luci, the 4-year-old pit bull that victims and police have determined was the leader of the attacks, was exiled from Swampscott, whether 7-month-old Bubba would be able to walk the town’s streets again was up in the air, and all three dogs, including 2-year-old Jed were required to undergo professional training and have to be confined to a pen if they’re in their owners’ backyards.

Because the two attacks that occurred on Nov. 13 and Dec. 24 were on other dogs and no humans were bitten, the Select Board opted not to consider euthanasia, which was another potential enforcement action.

But despite being spared from physical harm during the attacks themselves, the people who witnessed either their dog or their friends’ pet being attacked say the events caused emotional distress at the time and severe trauma to this day.

On Nov. 13, resident Angela O’Brien said she was taking a walk with her dog, Bailey, a 60-pound black Labrador mix, and her friend, Terri Sabelli, when they were approached by two unleashed pit bulls near Puritan Lane.

At first, the encounter seemed harmless.The two dogs seemed to be greeting Bailey by sniffing her, but things quickly escalated when unprovoked, the pits began attacking her dog. To her horror, she said, a third, larger pit bull came through the property’s fence and joined in on the attack, latching onto Bailey’s head.

Despite kicking at the dogs and screaming, O’Brien said she was not able to stop the attack, which she estimates lasted about five minutes.

“I was terrified,” said O’Brien. “It was the most violent scene I have ever witnessed. It was like a horror movie, the type you see on the screen (that) I would have had to turn away. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I was petrified,” added Sabelli, who couldn’t stop thinking that she and O’Brien, who fell to the ground trying to stop the “chaotic, out of control” attack, were next.

“I had never felt a fear like that,” said Sabelli. “No ability to negotiate, no ability to reason or anything. These dogs are going to kill us and I remember thinking this is going to hurt so bad when these dogs attack us.”

Eventually the owners’ daughter, Rebecca Schwartz, who resides in Salem but was in her parents’ front yard at the time, heard the attack and rushed over and was able to eventually separate the dogs.

But the damage was done. O’Brien said the attack left her dog bloodied with a torn ear and puncture wounds on her throat and chest. Although she’s physically healed now, she said the trauma has changed Bailey’s personality — now she’s scared of everything.

O’Brien and Sabelli said they no longer walk by the area.

Schwartz maintains she was at the scene within a matter of seconds and that only Luci was involved in the attack, disputing O’Brien’s version of events. Jed has a bad leg and can’t walk well, she said.

She said her parents just moved to the area from New Hampshire and were doing extensive work on the house. Having contractors going in and out of the yard somehow led to the gate being unlocked, she said, adding that precautions were taken to increase security.

But the dogs attacked again on Dec. 24, according to Nigel Godley, a Marblehead man who was walking his dog and another dog, Luna, for his friend Alice Goldsmith, who lives in town.

When he was walking on Puritan Lane, Godley said an unleashed pit bull began attacking his friend’s 30-pound rescue dog. He had observed a man cradling a second, unleashed pit bull in the area.

Godley said the terrifying attack was eventually broken up by the town’s animal control officer, Dan Prouix, who happened to drive by and witnessed the attack. Luna took off running and made it back home.



As a result of the attacks, the owners were issued a $200 citation for the unleashed dogs in the second attack, and after being sent to Ocean View Kennel in Revere for a quarantine period, Luci was rehomed with Rebecca in Salem.

Jeremy Cohen, the family’s attorney, conceded that Luci was a dangerous dog, but argued on behalf of Jed and Bubba, with a tentative agreement reached that Bubba would be able to walk with a leash and muzzle on town streets if deemed safe by the town’s animal control officer and a professional trainer.

Owner Glenn Schwartz said the family was “horrified beyond belief” by the attacks but was not willing to relocate the other two dogs, who he described as loving and gentle.

“We have never had any prior incidences at all,” he said. “We’re horrified by all this stuff.”