Police: Dog Whose Owner Is ‘Against Over-Vaccinating’ Bites Pool Guy

An 8-year-old cockapoo lacking a current rabies vaccine bit a man servicing a Dan’s Highway pool last month, police said.

The dog, Chester, bit the pool man on both legs on June 17, prompting him to seek medical attention at New Canaan Urgent Care, according to a police report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. 

According to the report, when police contacted Chester’s owner, the Dan’s Highway woman “indicated she was aware of the incident and confirmed that her dog did not have a current rabies vaccine because she was against over-vaccinating her dog.”

The author of the report—Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section—said she learned of the bite from the pool man’s father, who had contacted the dog owner’s South Salem, N.Y.-based veterinarian and learned that Chester didn’t have a current rabies shot.

The dog had been previously vaccinated with a three-year shot in September 2012, the report said, and had a titer shot done in February 2016, “which indicated the dog was protected,” Halm said in the report.

Halm advised Chester’s owner that the dog would need to be quarantined in a licensed facility, with a release date of June 23. However, the dog’s owner in seeking to board the animal “was declined several times because of the dog’s vaccine status,” Halm said.

Ultimately, Halm authorized a quarantine at the woman’s home “due to the circumstances,” she said.

Halm attended a health exam that the woman agreed to arrange with her veterinarian at Smith Ridge Animal Hospital in order to confirm that Chester was in good health, the report said.

He was, and on June 24 the woman then agreed to have Chester vaccinated, at which time Halm released the animal from quarantine, she said.

No tickets were issued. The pool man is from Somers, N.Y., the report said.