A Shih Tzu mix whose rabies vaccine had expired bit a police officer in a Cross Street apartment, records show.
Officers around 8:11 a.m. on Sept. 25 (a Saturday) were responding to a noise complaint at 16 Cross St. when a small white dog—a Shih Tzu-poodle or ‘Shih Poo’ mix named Kokbe—began barking at them “making it difficult to hear anyone speak,” according to a police incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
“I then attempted to usher the dog towards a bedroom so that it could be confined and separated from us,” the officer’s incident report continued. “As I did the dog bit me from behind in the left calf.”
The 4-year-old bitch had inflicted a small puncture wound, the incident report said. Attached to her collar was a tag showing proof of a rabies vaccine from 2016, it said.
Kokbe’s owners “could not provide anything more recent,” and one of her owners “stated that the dog has not been to a vet since she adopted it from her brother approximately one year ago,” the incident report said.
Police told the dog’s owners that the dog would need to be quarantined in an off-property facility, such as a veterinary hospital, for 10 days starting immediately, the report said. The owners agreed to bring Kokbe to New Canaan Veterinary Hospital, it said, and signed a form after police explained the quarantine order, it said.
After leaving the residence, the officer who was bitten received a tetanus shot at Norwalk Hospital, it said.
New Canaan Animal Control Office Allyson Halm became involved in the case and the following week, on Sept. 27, contacted one of the dog’s owners, according to Halm’s own supplementary report.
The owner told Halm “that the dog was in Hartford and she was trying to find a facility that would take the dog,” the report said. The owner “further related that she had taken the dog to Central Veterinary Hospital in North Haven because the dog was limping and possibly had the dog vaccinated for rabies while there.”
Halm then confirmed with a hospital staff member at Central that the facility had been made aware of the bite but vaccinated the dog anyway since Kokbe “had to be quarantined but that [the owner] could not find a facility to take the dog because it wasn’t vaccinated.”
The vaccination violated quarantine protocol, Halm noted in the report.
The next day, Sept. 28, Kokbe was placed in a Norwalk boarding facility, where it must remain “unless a veterinarian determines the dog is suffering from a medical condition,” Halm said. The following week, on Oct. 5, the Norwalk facility contacted Halm and advised that Kokbe “was examined by a veterinarian and found to be in good health,” the report said.
The quarantine ended as of that day (Oct. 5), the report said.
It wasn’t clear from the report whether Kokbe’s owners were cited for failure to license the dog (which requires proof of up-to-date vaccination) or whether the animal hospital in North Haven was cited for violation of quarantine protocol.