Police last month cited a Canoe Hill Road woman for two counts of nuisance dog after her Australian cattle dogs bit a UPS deliveryman multiple times on the arms, sending him to an urgent care facility.
One of the dogs, a two-year-old named “George” (the other one is “Lenny”) already had bitten a passing neighbor the month before, after his vaccination for rabies had expired, according to police reports obtained by NewCanaanite.com through public records requests.
The dogs first came on the radar of police Sept. 2, when a Canoe Hill Road neighbor phoned police that she found a dog roaming her property and “acting aggressively toward her,” according to an incident report from Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. The neighbor heard a someone calling out “George” and at that time the dog left, the report said.
A few days later, at about 9:22 a.m. on Sept. 5, a Devonwood Lane man was bitten on the shin by George while walking his own dog past the Canoe Hill Road property. The Australian cattle dog breached an electric fence to get at the man, who was walking on the opposite side of the street with his dog and wife.
The man “also had some abrasions to left his wrist, which he said happened when he tried to jump onto a stone wall to avoid the dog,” police said in an incident report.
The man “said that a woman came out and they began shouting at each other,” the report said.
He “told her to ‘get control of her dogs’ to which the other party allegedly replied, ‘I’ll control them how I please,’ ” the report said.
The dog’s owner, later interviewed by police and appearing “visibly upset,” denied saying that to the man, who got stitches for his shin.
The woman “stated that she was inside the house and busy taking care of her four children,” the report said.
“She was unaware that her two dogs were outside,” it continued. “She then heard some yelling and barking outside and that it was when she learned that there had been an incident. She stated that her two dogs are usually secured by an electric fence but when she lost power several days earlier the dogs learned that they could roam. She said that while she does have power back now they try and break the electric fence.”
Though the woman told police that George was up-to-date on his vaccinations, Halm discovered the next day that he was not (his last shot had expired in April) and ordered that the dog undergo his 10-day quarantine at an off-site facility. The woman contacted the state animal control officer to try and get her to allow George to undergo the quarantine at home, but that request was denied. He ultimately went to The Boarding House in Norwalk, and both of the woman’s dogs were subsequently vaccinated and licensed.
The most recent incident occurred Oct. 14, Halm said in a separate incident report.
Both dogs bit the UPS delivery man, a Bronx, N.Y. resident, and went to the same Norwalk facility for the off-site quarantine.
“It should be noted that [the dog’s owner] and I discussed at length options to prevent any future incident,” Halm write on the report. I advised that Australian cattle dogs should not be unsupervised on an electric fence, and that the safest option would be to secure the dogs in a physically fenced yard. [The owner] indicated that further training or re-homing the dogs would be considered. I then advised [her] that training would not correct the behavior instilled in this breed of dog and that full time management would be the only way to prevent further incidents. I further advised that re-homing the dogs could prove difficult with the bite history. I also advised that if there should be another incident I would implement a restraining order. [The woman] indicated that she understood the severity of the situation and while the dogs were off the property there would be further discussion regarding the dogs’ future.”
The dogs were released back to their owner Oct. 25. Halm additionally cited their owner for two counts of failure to license.