Animal 411

Animal Control: Dog Licensing Deadline Is June 30

By |

New Canaan Police are reminding dog owners to have their pets licensed with the town by June 30. 

Owners face a late fee for registering dogs after the deadline, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the Police Department Animal Control section. In addition to a nominal monthly fee, an additional failure to license citation could be assessed, which carries a fee of $75 per dog. State law calls for all dogs at least six months old to be licensed, and proof of rabies vaccination is required. A dog’s license helps authorities locate owners in cases where the animals are lost, Halm said. “It’s the law and it’s also a safety factor,” Halm said.

Cat That Wandered into Local Home To Be Put Up for Adoption

By |

A cat that wandered into a New Canaan home last week is expected to go up for adoption soon, officials said. The black cat on Friday entered a Richards Lane home wearing no ID tags and local police transported the animal to the town’s shelter at the dump, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department Animal Control section. Animal Control held the animal over the long weekend “hoping someone would realize they lost their cat,” Halm said. It wasn’t clear whether the cat was a stray, or had been dumped or lost. According to Halm, the cat is a male, appears to be a purebred and “has features similar to those of a Bombay cat.” His age is currently unknown.

Allyson Halm

VIDEO: New Canaan Animal Control, Firefighters Rescue Orphaned Raccoons

By |



[Video courtesy of the New Canaan Fire Department.]

New Canaan firefighters and the head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section on Wednesday morning rescued orphaned raccoons from a Main Street residence, officials said. A homeowner phoned Animal Control on Tuesday night to report the baby raccoons crying on her property, and the following morning found that one of the three young animals was on the ground while two others were stuck up in a tree, officials said. Their mom likely had been struck and killed by a car, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of Animal Control. As per the instructions on Animal Control’s after-hours voicemail, the homeowner brought the baby raccoon she found to Weston-based nonprofit organization Wildlife In Crisis. A second one of the babies fell from the tree as firefighters arrived at the scene Wednesday morning, according to Halm.

Animal 411

Unwanted Dog: Residents Mislead Police About Ownership of Pit Bull

By |

Police last month took custody temporarily of an out-of-state dog about whose ownership a Smith Ridge Road family misled authorities. 

An individual at 119 Smith Ridge Road initially led Animal Control to believe that a pit bull in her garage had been found, officials said. The dog was said by the reporting party to be aggressive, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Yet when police arrived at the home on the morning of April 11 to pick up the dog, they were told that the animal belonged to a man living there, Gilberto Constanza-Retana. He told police that his own brother—Francisco Retana, who lived in Brewster, N.Y.—had advised that the dog could no longer stay at the Smith Ridge Road home because the animal was a threat to children in the house, the incident report said. Further, Constanza-Retana told police that he was sick and could not care for the dog. 

That brother, Retana, arrived and repeated what Constanza-Retana had said, according to the report. At the request of police officers, Retana then transported the dog to the New Canaan Veterinary Hospital, the report said.

Animal 411

Silvermine Road Dog Gets Loose Downtown, Bites Woman’s Hand

By |

New Canaan Police this month issued a verbal warning to a Silvermine Road woman whose dog jumped out of her SUV after she parked at a store downtown and, while roaming, bit a person trying to secure the animal. The events unfolded during what investigators determined to be an approximately 10-minute period on a Friday afternoon, and led to the victim receiving medical treatment for bite wounds to her hand, according to police incident reports obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. Though the owner realized the beast had gotten loose moments after parking in the lot at Weed & Duryea on Grove Street—surveillance video later reviewed by police showed her chasing after the “medium sized brownish looking dog,” the incident report said—the woman told authorities she didn’t realize her pet bit anyone while roaming for 10 minutes, after which time the video showed her putting the animal back in the car. The incident occurred at about 9:45 a.m. on March 29, according to the police report. The victim, a 21-year-old woman, didn’t tell police about it until the following day, after which time her hand had become severely swollen and she went to see a doctor, officials said.