To the editor:
At 6:30 p.m. Feb. 11, my 50- pound Airedale puppy, Stoney, was struck and killed by a hitand run driver in front of our house in Pownal.
That stretch of Poland Range Road is dirt and riddled with potholes and icy washboards, yet somehow, the driver managed to be traveling fast enough to kill a large dog with a reflective collar.
Stoney was an important show dog, from champion sire and dam, and when the perpetrator is apprehended, he or she will face substantial damages and veterinary bills from the clinic that tried valiantly to save him. His heart and lungs were too badly damaged and his chest cavity was filling with blood.
We will, of course, be offering a large reward for information leading to the arrest of the callous, uncaring driver.
None of this is important. What is important is the searing image of one of the world’s five noble dogs heroically dragging himself from the road to our front doorstep so as to die at home.
What is important is the cry of anguish at that heartbreaking sight.
What is important is his hanging on to life, his head in my lap, during the long drive to the hospital.
What is important is his still-warm body when we said goodbye. What is important is his good nature, intelligence and exuberance, now forever destroyed.
In our 12 years here, we have waged a losing battle against speeders who use our road as a shortcut between Route 136 and Route 9. The Cumberland County Sheriff ’s Department has been helpful with periodic patrols, but they are spread much too thin.
We and our neighbors have requested that the town of Pownal place speed tables on the road, but were told that doing so would be impossible, in spite of the sheriff ’s opinion to the contrary.
Their reaction is to continually grade the road so that the speeders can travel even faster. One person has already been killed on this short stretch of dirt. How many will it take for any action to be forthcoming?
We have a beautiful, pre- Revolutionary, 75-acre farm here, which is rapidly becoming untenable. With the help of a few high-priced lawyers, it could be one of Maine’s most attractive trailer parks.
Christopher S. Hyde
Pownal
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