A New Canaan dog underwent a 10-day quarantine that finished this month after biting a neighbor, records show.
The male black Labrador mixed-breed canine, a 6-year-old named “Fishwick,” was leashed when he bit a woman in their Heritage Hill Road condo complex, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
The woman “told this officer that she was walking on the stairs near her apartment when the dog bit her,” Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn said in the case report. She’d been “bit or scratched on the left arm, leg and back,” it said, and went to a health clinic on East Avenue for treatment.
The woman knew Fishwick and Godejohn reached the dog’s owner. Fishwick is up-to-date on his vaccines and registered with the town, the report said. The owner told Godejohn “that he had his dog on a leash and that he was very surprised” about the bite.
Under state law, “Whenever a person, companion animal or other animal has been bitten or attacked by a dog, cat or ferret, any state, municipal or regional animal control officer shall quarantine such biting or attacking dog, cat or ferret for ten days.” When the biting animal has a current rabies vaccination, it “shall be quarantined in a public pound or in a veterinary hospital or in a commercial kennel approved by the State Veterinarian for such purpose or on the premises of the owner or keeper of such biting dog, cat or ferret when such premises is adequate for the confinement of such animal, as determined by the authority that issued such order.”
Fishwick underwent his quarantine at home, through Oct. 4, and his owner told Godejohn that he’d muzzle the dog in the apartment complex from now on.