Peteie was stolen from the Peninsula Humane Society. The dog was impounded for biting a girl on her face.

The trip to Fox Elementary School ended with Peteie impounded after biting a 5-year-old girl’s face but the quarantine was just the beginning of the end, Repetti said.

In the months following the unprovoked and unexpected attack, Peteie spent months at the Peninsula Humane Society while Repetti fought to keep his pet from being destroyed.

Before Repetti could get a final answer, however, he said he lost his dog anyway when the animal was reported stolen from the premises.

The sequence of events left Repetti questioning many things — the Belmont city policy on dangerous animals, the overlap of PHS and the county animal control and its euthanization policy. But mainly, Repetti wants to know what happened to Peteie.

On the fateful day in August, Peteie (pronounced Petey) wasn’t yet 2 years old. He would celebrate that milestone in the cages of PHS. On that day, Repetti said Peteie was at the park with a friend who stopped with the leashed dog to speak with a friend. During the conversation, Peteie bit the friend’s young daughter on the face for reasons that still remain murky.

A PHS officer was called to the scene and took control of the dog. The little girl went to Sequoia Hospital for stitches. The dog went to the pound where he remained until his Jan. 14 disappearance.

Repetti went into overdrive, finding a San Francisco attorney specializing in animal cases to help him fight a destroy order.

The girl’s parents sent a statement on the dog’s behalf but he was deemed vicious  and ordered euthanized, Repetti said.

In December, He appealed to Judge Quentin Kopp whose hands were tied. In December, with the euthanization order looming, Repetti said he had 60 days to appeal. He expected to hear from his attorney. Instead, he encountered police first.

Around 11:30 p.m. Jan. 14 – Repetti clearly recalls it was a Sunday night before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday — San Mateo police rapped on his door. The officer told Repetti his dog was reported missing from PHS at Coyote Point in San Mateo and they wanted to search the premises to make sure he wasn’t harboring a vicious animal.

The dog was not located and the theft investigation remains open, said San Mateo police Lt. Tom Daughtry.

The thief had to go through two fences to get to Peteie’s Kennel, said PHS spokesman Scott Delucchi.

Officials were shocked by the disappearance, especially because the only animals at PHS are up for adoption or impounded. In the past, animals have been stolen from the premises but were typically cats because there were no locks on the cages then, Delucchi said.

The theft frustrated Repetti but not as much as this week when he learned Citrus Heights police went to his sister’s home to seek the dog.

“This is blatant harassment,” Repetti said.

He believes PHS officials euthanized the dog, either accidentally or to sidestep the appeals process, and offered the theft story as a cover-up. Delucchi and Daughtry said the crime scene appeared pretty blatantly to be the work of an intruder.

Neither would comment on whether Repetti is assumed to have taken his own dog but Delucchi said owners of impounded animals have tried before stealing them back during working hours.

Although PHS is not the agency that decides if a dog is put down —  the country contracts with a different employee — Delucchi said the decisions always leave it in a no-win situation.

“There are a certain number of people who think we’re wrong on either side. They either say the dog is not vicious and shouldn’t be euthanized or there are those who want to know if we’re waiting for the animal to hurt somebody,” Delucchi said.

Repetti, too, said he feels like he stepped into a no-win bind.

“If I’d known all this was going to happened I would have taken the dog and took off,” Repetti said. “Instead, I did the right thing and look where it got me.”

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.