Animal 411

Selectmen Divided on Future of Animal Shelter in New Canaan 

By |

Members of the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voiced support for two different ways to move forward with the town’s Animal Control shelter, which long has been occupied in a former incinerator building at the dump. That brick structure soon will need a new roof, which two officials say would cost about $75,000 to $80,000 to replace. Selectman Nick Williams raised the issue recently, calling for New Canaan to find better quarters for the lost or abandoned animals that end up in the shelter. During the Board’s special meeting at Town Hall, Selectman Kit Devereaux said response to the issue has generated strong support from concerned residents, and that creation of a new shelter “would be a really great public-private partnership.”

“I want to know if there would be support for that,” Devereaux said. Williams said he agreed, and that he received several calls and emails from residents who want to help.

Allyson Halm

Nuisance Dog Citation for New Canaan Woman Whose German Shepherd Scared Neighbor

By |

Police fined an Old Studio Road woman $75 after her German shepherd dog got off-property and frightened a neighbor out with her own smaller canines, records show. The nuisance dog citation followed “several occasions” in which the shepherd, Monty, escaped the property, according to a case report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. On the morning in question, Sept. 23 (a Monday), the victim was walking her two small dogs when she saw the German shepherd running toward her. “[A] female child was trying to catch the dog but could not gain control,” according to the case report, written by Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department Animal Control section. 

Monty’s owner then “pulled up in her vehicle” and instructed the victim to get in her car, at which time the shepherd’s owner secured the dog, the report said.

Allyson Halm

New Canaan Man Fined After Dogs Bite Neighbor’s Backside

By |

Police fined a Benedict Hill Road man more than $300 after two dogs in his care bit a next-door neighbor in the buttocks on a Sunday morning last month, records show. At about 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, a woman was walking down her driveway to pick up newspapers when she saw her neighbor’s two dogs barking and running toward her, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. The woman told police later that afternoon that she’d been “very afraid” and beginning running toward her neighbor’s house “and she fell as the dogs began to bite her buttocks several times,” according to the incident report. She began “screaming as loud as she could” and then got back up and started running again toward her neighbor’s door, which he opened “to assist her as the dogs were still attempting to bite her,” the report said.

Animal 411

Emaciated Racing Pigeon Rescued at Waveny

By |

Police last week rescued an emaciated racing pigeon that touched down in New Canaan parks, the second such bird to have flown off-course and landed in town in the past month. Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, said that she first spotted an exhausted pigeon last Monday, resting under cars in the parking lot at Irwin Park. 

The pigeon hopped away that day, but Halm said she saw the same distinctive bird on Thursday on a trail at Waveny. “It let me catch it,” Halm said. “Skinny as all can be… You can clearly feel the breastbone.”

Domestically raised and trained, racing pigeons are tagged and belong to hobbyists who release them remotely and clock the time it takes them to fly back home in competition. The rescued bird is now “eating like a pig,” Halm said.

Allyson Halm

‘It’s a Futile Act’: Animal Control Voices Concerns After State Issues Permit for Trapping in New Canaan

By |

State officials on Wednesday issued a permit for a nuisance wildlife control officer to trap animals in southwestern New Canaan, prompting the head of Animal Control to voice concerns about the practice. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Wildlife Division issued the permit to a trapper for the area of Adams Lane, according to a Sept. 25 call log at the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section reviewed by NewCanaanite.com. The call log didn’t specify which property owners sought the permit. State officials could not immediately be reached. Last month, an Adams Lane dog was snatched by a coyote and killed, days after a Labrador retriever sustained what are suspected to be coyote bites in a yard on nearby Knapp Lane.