Animal Control

Recent Articles

Police Seek Owner of Human-Attacking Cat [PHOTOS]

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New Canaan Animal Control officials are trying to find the owner of a free-roaming cat that bit and scratched a town woman this week, forcing her to undergo a series of rabies shots. The dark brown tabby on Tuesday morning attacked a Douglas Road woman in her own fenced backyard as she approached to greet the animal, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. The woman was treated by EMTs due to injuries on the back of her calf, Halm said. The same cat crossed Route 106 and ended up Wednesday on a High View Terrace property, where it was photographed, Halm said. There, it nipped at a woman’s shoe. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Animal 411, News, Our Animals, Allyson Halm, Animal Control

Citations Issued after New Canaan Woman Lodges Complaint about Neighbor’s ‘Menacing’ Dog

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Police have cited a Long Lots Road dog owner for two counts of failure to license following a complaint lodged by a neighbor who told authorities that a black Labrador mix next door had been “menacing” her “for a long time,” records show. On Aug. 19, according to the menaced neighbor, the 6-year-old Labrador-Australian shepherd mixed-breed dog “charged up to” the woman “at her mailbox and she was afraid to move.”

Eventually “she spoke softly to the dog and it backed away, then she returned to her home shaking in fear,” according to an incident report from the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. The following day, she lodged a formal complaint with Animal Control. In it, the neighbor said the dog “runs after vehicles and anyone walking by the yard, but there have been multiple incidents wherein the dog did not adhere to the electric fence and comes out onto the shared driveway chasing people,” according to the police report. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Animal 411, News, Our Animals, Allyson Halm, Animal Control

Elm Street Poodle Re-Homed After Attacking Smaller Dogs Again

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A New Canaan poodle has been re-homed following a biting incident last weekend at a condo complex downtown, officials said. Long owned by an older woman who lives in Pride’s Crossing on Elm Street, the standard poodle on Saturday attacked a pair of leashed Havanese after bolting from its unit, according to a police report. One of the dogs sustained puncture wounds to its leg, according to Officer Allyson Halm of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. The same dog nine months ago similarly had gotten out of its home and attacked a small dog, according to Halm. Neighbors have said several other incidents have gone unreported, officials said. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Animal 411, News, Our Animals, Allyson Halm, Animal Control

Did You Hear … ?

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The “Welcome Home” New Canaan video above is the 30-second version of a production that started making the rounds last week, a public-private collaboration that included the town, Board of Realtors and Chamber of Commerce. ***

New Canaan dog owners on the “delinquent list”—those who had dogs licensed in the past but haven’t done so in this licensing year (which started July 1)—can expect to get a reminder soon from the Town Clerk’s office. There are about 500 dog owners on that list and, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, the list includes all 15 dog owners who had been cited and fined last year for failure to license their dogs. ***

The Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday night approved an application to re-subdivide into four lots a combined 10.14-acre parcel on Greenley Road. The 5-acre parcel at 291 Greenley already includes a 6,300-square-foot home that was built in 1927 (the same year that New Canaan High School and Karl Chevrolet were founded), tax records show. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Around Town, News, Allyson Halm, Animal Control, Did You Hear, Grace Farms, Greenley Road, New Canaan Library

‘We Could Have Two Bears’: Black Bear Sightings Tuesday on Eastern, Western Sides of New Canaan

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Police say black bear sightings reported on opposite sides of New Canaan Tuesday could represent two different bears—the most recent sign that the species increasingly is making its home here and in surrounding towns. The first report came in before 8 a.m. from a woman who heard a bear growling in the woods off of Rosebrook Road on the east side of town, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. A few hours later, sightings were reported on the west side of town, on Sherwood Lane and Wellesley Drive, Halm said. “We could have two bears,” she said. “There were no reports of a bear crossing 123 or 124, and the first bear was reported as being huge” while the second one wasn’t. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Animal 411, News, Our Animals, Allyson Halm, Animal Control, black bears, New Canaan Police Department