Section 137C Inspection of kennels; revocation, suspension and reinstatement of license; nuisance - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 137C. The mayor of a city or selectmen of a town, or in Boston the police commissioner, or a chief of police or a dog officer within his jurisdiction, may at any time inspect or cause to be inspected any kennel and if, in their or his judgment, the same is not being maintained in a sanitary and humane manner, or if records are not properly kept as required by law, the county commissioners, or in Boston the police commissioner, shall by order revoke or suspend, and in case of suspension may reinstate, such license. Upon the petition of twenty-five citizens, filed with the mayor of a city or the selectmen of a town, or in Boston with the police commissioner, setting forth that they are aggrieved, or annoyed to an unreasonable extent, by one or more dogs at a kennel maintained in such city or town, because of the excessive barking or vicious disposition of said dogs or other conditions connected with such kennel constituting a public nuisance, said mayor, selectmen or police commissioner, as the case may be, within seven days after the filing of such petition, shall give notice to all parties in interest of a public hearing to be held within fourteen days after the date of such notice. Within seven days after such public hearing said mayor or selectmen, in Nantucket county or in Suffolk county elsewhere than in Boston, or in Boston said police commissioner, shall make an order either revoking or suspending such kennel license or otherwise regulating said kennel, or dismissing said petition. In counties other than Nantucket or Suffolk, said mayor or selectmen within said seven days shall report in writing to the county commissioners their recommendations and within seven days after receipt of such report said county commissioners shall investigate or cause to be investigated the subject matter of such petition and shall, by order, either affirm or deny such recommendations by suspending or revoking such kennel license or otherwise regulating such kennel, or by dismissing the petition. Written notice of any order under this section revoking, suspending or reinstating a license shall be mailed forthwith to the officer issuing such license and to the holder of such license. Within ten days after such order the holder of such license may bring a petition in the district court within the judicial district of which such kennel is maintained, addressed to the justice of the court, praying that the order may be reviewed by the court, and, after such notice to the officer or officers involved as the court may deem necessary, it shall review such action, hear the witnesses and affirm such order unless it shall appear that it was made without proper cause or in bad faith, in which case such order shall be reversed. The decision of the court shall be final and conclusive upon the parties. Any person maintaining a kennel after the license therefor has been so revoked, or while such license is so suspended, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.