HINGHAM, Mass. -- The owner of an English mastiff that bit two women has sent a letter to Hingham police asking that the criminal charges against his wife be dropped, the Patriot Ledger reported.

Robert Ullman said the charges have cost his family their business, the Hingham Square Gallery.

“We have suffered beyond belief as a result of the biting events,” Ullman wrote. “We have finally come to terms with the reality that we will never see our dog again, and our businesses are gone ... please give us the chance to make a comeback.”

One of the people bitten by Ullman's dog was Stacey Wakefield, the wife of Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield.

Hingham police charged Megan Ullman in connection with the incidents, one each in June 2008 and in June 2009 at the gallery she has run for five years.

She is due in court Monday on charges of disorderly conduct, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury (the dog) and reckless assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the dog).

Ullman said she is going to have to close her gallery on Dec. 24 as a result of the negative publicity. She said her husband’s carpentry business has also been hurt.

Hingham selectmen had ordered that Gabriella, the dog that bit the women, be euthanized. The Ullmans appealed the ruling and a clerk magistrate ordered that instead the dog be sent to a New York dog shelter.