Animal 411

NCPD Animal Control, Wildlife In Crisis Rescue Orphaned Baby Raccoon

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When a barking dog alerted Patrice LaSusa to three baby raccoons stranded at the base of a tree at her daughter’s Colonial Road house last Tuesday morning, one of the first things she noticed about the young mammals was that “they were scared to death.”

LaSusa phoned the Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department and Officer Allyson Halm rushed over, determining quickly that the wildlife had been orphaned. It is possible that the mother raccoon had been taken out with the garbage—an unfortunate and common occurrence, according to Halm. Two of the young raccoons ran off before Halm could rescue them, leaving just one to be saved and brought to a nonprofit organization in Weston that’s dedicated to wildlife preservation and land conservation. The incident, which captures much of what Animal Control officers do in New Canaan, also is prompting Halm to put out a call for volunteers to help transport the needy animals to Wildlife in Crisis. “It’s all I do, all day,” Halm said of New Canaan’s wildlife activity.

Animal 411

Four Baby Possums Rescued After Someone Flings Their Dead Mother Off Of a Driveway with Newborn Young Clinging To Her

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Wildlife preservationists are nursing four baby possums in incubators after someone appears to have flung the body of their pregnant mother, killed by a car and with her babies still clinging to her, off of a shared driveway and over a stone wall in New Canaan early Thursday, officials say. Shortly before 9 a.m., an East Cross Road woman spotted the dead marsupial in her driveway—eight to 10 live newborns in a pouch and clinging to her—as she was dropping off her youngest two kids at West School, a girl in the second grade and son in the third. The resident, Amedee Maggard, phoned Weston-based Wildlife In Crisis and the Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department about the discovery. But by the time she returned to the driveway and met Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm there later in the morning, the mother possum was gone, and only a pile of blood remained where she had been. Halm promptly set about searching for the animal in the area and found her, “hanging off a branch” where she obviously had been flung aside by someone, with the helpless young “scattered left and right,” she said.

Animal 411

‘People Should Not Have a Blanket Fear of the Fox’: Reports of Multiple Red Fox Dens in New Canaan

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The New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section has received five reports of fox dens in town over the past several days, officials say—an annual surge in activity following the birth of “kits” that should cause residents no alarm, according to wildlife experts. Sightings have been reported at Lakeview Cemetery as well as on Brushy Ridge, Canoe Hill and Lone Tree Farm Roads, Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm said. Now about eight weeks old, the red fox kits are strong enough to venture forth from the dens made by their parents, both of whom continue to forage for food and bring it back to litters that average five to eight babies, she said. Foxes prey on chipmunks, mice, squirrels and goose eggs and “are very good for the environment,” Halm said. “They are extremely adaptable and, if left alone, they are basically part of the landscape,” she said.

Animal 411

Unintended ‘Leg Hold’ Trapping of Fox on Briscoe Road Prompts Concerns

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After a leg hold trap inadvertently caught a red fox in New Canaan on Wednesday morning, officials are cautioning residents who authorize use of the devices on their properties to ensure that non-targeted animals aren’t suffering needlessly in them. Rosemary DeClue of Briscoe Road notified the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section after spotting the fox caught in a next-door neighbor’s trap that was meant for coyotes, just over her property line. DeClue said she had noticed a contraption of some sort, set in plain view from her home, near a wood pile, but wasn’t sure what it was until about 8 a.m. Wednesday morning when “all the sudden, I saw something jumping around and it was a fox caught in a trap.”

The owner of a Labrador retriever and two smaller dogs (Havanese), DeClue said she’s concerned about her own dogs getting past her fence and into the trap and that she opposes trapping in principle. “No one knows how long this fox was there,” she said. DeClue remained outside until her neighbor’s hired trapper arrived and set the fox free, she said.