Arbitration award made in WB dog mauling case

WILKES-BARRE — An arbitration panel in Luzerne County Court awarded a Dauphin County woman the amount she sought to cover emergency veterinary care for her dog mauled more than three years ago in an attack by two German shepherds owned by Beth Gilbert McBride, the county’s acting Election Director and chairwoman of Wilkes-Barre City Council.

The $4,399 award to Carrie Amann on Dec. 1 equaled the judgment issued in her favor by a district justice who heard her 2019 civil complaint against McBride. The panel added unspecified costs to the award.

Amann Wednesday said she was happy with the outcome. “It has taken a while given the process and COVID,” Amann said.

A message left for McBride was not returned.

In her complaint, Amann, of Harrisburg, alleged McBride was negligent for failing to confine her dogs to her Lehigh Street property, which led to the attack on May 9, 2019. The animals had dug under the fence separating McBride’s yard from that of Amann’s mother, Beth Ciliberto, the complaint said, adding the German shepherds had previously displayed aggression toward Ciliberto and her dog Lucy. The complaint said McBride was aware that animal control had been called about her dogs constantly barking and the smell of their feces and urine in the yard created a nuisance for neighbors.

Amann said she brought her dog Huckleberry, an 8-year-old coonhound at the time, with her to visit her mother. Amann said after Huckleberry and Lucy were let out into the backyard, the German shepherds went under the fence into the Cilibertos’ backyard, bit Huckleberry’s head and, while mauling the dog, dragged it back under the fence onto McBride’s property. Amann said her mother witnessed the entire attack. Huckleberry suffered a chest wound and other injuries that required emergency treatment at Northeast Veterinary Hospital in Plains Township costing $4,224.

The district justice added a filing fee of $175 to the Oct. 1, 2019 judgment for the veterinary care bill. McBride later appealed the judgment to county court.