Allyson Halm

‘It’s a Futile Act’: Animal Control Voices Concerns After State Issues Permit for Trapping in New Canaan

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State officials on Wednesday issued a permit for a nuisance wildlife control officer to trap animals in southwestern New Canaan, prompting the head of Animal Control to voice concerns about the practice. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Wildlife Division issued the permit to a trapper for the area of Adams Lane, according to a Sept. 25 call log at the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section reviewed by NewCanaanite.com. The call log didn’t specify which property owners sought the permit. State officials could not immediately be reached. Last month, an Adams Lane dog was snatched by a coyote and killed, days after a Labrador retriever sustained what are suspected to be coyote bites in a yard on nearby Knapp Lane.

Animal 411

‘It Does Establish Local Control’: State Rep Pursues Bill That Would Allow Towns To Decide on ‘Leg Hold’ Trapping

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A state legislator is urging residents of New Canaan and nearby towns to contact their delegates to the Connecticut General Assembly as he pushes for a bill that would allow municipalities—rather than the state—to decide whether widely discussed “leg hold” or “foothold” traps may be used in their towns. State Rep. Fred Camillo (R-151) said that allowing towns to move away from the traps—which use a footplate and curved jaws that snap onto animals that spring them—is mainly “about cruelty to animals who otherwise have no say at all in how they are treated.”

“This is something that is really horrible,” Camillo, who represents a wide swath of Greenwich, told NewCanaanite.com as a long session of the state legislature got underway last week. “Horrible. And it is not just for coyotes. Dogs have gotten caught in these things.

Animal 411

‘This Is Just Legal Animal Cruelty’: Coyote Seen Dragging ‘Leg Hold’ Trap in New Canaan

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Residents of northern New Canaan are voicing concerns about the welfare of a coyote that’s been spotted multiple times for the last two weeks dragging a leg hold trap through the snow. First seen Dec. 12 by a Jonathan Road resident, the animal is suffering because of what appears to be a botch job by an amateur or otherwise unqualified trapper, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. “This is just legal animal cruelty,” Halm said of the animal, which she herself saw briefly on Wednesday. No one has been able to photograph the animal, though pictures of its tracks—paws and the trap—are clear in the snow (see photo at right).

Animal 411

Councilman: New Canaanites Want Town To Consider Ban of Leg-Hold Trapping

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The unintended trapping of a red fox in a leg hold device on Briscoe Road has captured the public’s imagination and some believe that New Canaan should pass its own law banning the practice, according to a member of the town’s legislative body. Town Councilman John Engel at the group’s most recent meeting raised the prospect of taking up the widely discussed matter in public hearings. “Some people say that this is a state law that says that you can put out [leg hold] traps, but some people say that as a town, maybe we shouldn’t just defer to state law,” Engel said at the group’s Jan. 20 meeting, held at Town Hall. “Maybe we should evaluate and figure out what our policy is.