An intact male Saint Bernard mix, 3, underwent a 10-day quarantine at the New Canaan Animal Shelter after biting someone, records show.
Officers were dispatched at about 7:13 p.m. on Feb. 11 (a Wednesday) to a Valley Road home on a report of a dog bite, according to a case report filed by Officer Austin Malizia and obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
According to the redacted report, the victim told police that before school that day, wearing “many layers of clothing” because of the cold, they were playing with a dog who then, later, “thought that [the victim] was ‘coming at him’ and ‘jumped up and bit him,’ ” Malizia said in the report.
Police documented the victim’s injuries on their right arm, the report said.
Malizia then met with a man outside who told police that the department “has a long history with his ex-wife … regarding her dog.” The man then identified the biting dog as “Achilles.”
The following day, at about 8:30 a.m., New Canaan Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn contacted the dog’s owner, who told him that Achilles was “currently vaccinated for rabies,” according to the case report. However, the vaccination at Cannondale Animal Clinic had, in fact, expired on March 21, 2024, the report said. At about 11 a.m., Godejohn and Officer Christopher Dewey arrived at the dog owner’s home on Smith Ridge Road, and explained to the woman “that her dog would have to be quarantined off-property at the New Canaan Animal Shelter if she could not produce a current up-to-date rabies certificate for her dog ‘Achilles,’ described as “a very large, white and brown, three year old, intact male Saint Bernard type mix dog.”
The animal was scheduled for quarantine through Feb. 21, impounded as animal #35, the report said.
On Feb. 20, a fire shuttered the NCPD Animal Shelter—a former incinerator building at the Transfer Station—and officials said at the time that no animals were in the building.
According to Godejohn, Achilles was housed at Wilton Animal Control for his quarantine “because of a number of issues with the animal shelter before the fire.”
“Also for officer safety concerns,” Godejohn said. “The dog was not at the New Canaan animal shelter during the fire.”