Animal 411

New Canaan Police: 50 Bobcat Sightings in 2024

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New Canaan Police say they received 50 reported sightings of bobcats in 2024, down from 66 in 2023 though that’s likely just because residents are growing more accustomed to seeing the normally reclusive felines. Another bobcat sighting, on Lambert Road, came in on Tuesday. Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn said residents shouldn’t approach the animals. They are naturally wary of people “and pose little threat to public safety or health,” according to Godejohn. 

Bobcats are a top-predator in Connecticut that feeds on rabbits, woodchucks, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, white-tailed deer and birds—and sometimes unsupervised domestic animals such as small livestock and poultry, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Godejohn noted that “unprotected pets and livestock” are at risk with a recent rise in reported sightings.

Animal 411

New Canaan Dogs Quarantined After Biting Delivery Man

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Two New Canaan dogs are undergoing quarantine after biting a delivery man on Cheese Spring Road last week. On the morning of Dec. 2, New Canaan Police received a call from a Yonkers, N.Y. man saying that at about 4:45 p.m. the prior day (a Sunday) he’d been bit on Cheese Spring at Knollwood Lane. He was making a delivery when “two dogs bit him on both his legs,” according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. The delivery man went to the Norwalk Hospital ER for treatment, according to the report, written by Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn.

Animal 411

New Canaan Animal Control Frees Hawk Snagged in Chicken Coop [PHOTOS]

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Police on Wednesday night freed a red-tailed hawk that had become stuck in a southeastern New Canaan chicken coop. Authorities were notified of the problem on Buttery Road at about 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, according to Officer Sean Godejohn, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. “The hawk presumably flew into the coop to get a chicken and got stuck,” Godejohn said. The bird was not injured, he said.

Animal 411

New Canaan Dog Owner Fined After ‘Buzz’ Bites Jogger

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New Canaan Police fined the owner of a Great Pyrenees mixed-breed canine after he (the dog) bit a passing jogger two Thursdays ago. At about 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 17, Officer Sean Godejohn—head of NCPD’s Animal Control section—received a call from the wife of a man who’d been bitten by a neighbor’s dog while jogging down Father Peters Lane, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

She “told this officer that he was bit on his right buttock” and the husband added “that the dog tried to bite him again on his hand,” according to the report. 

The man “fled from the dog” and “the dog did not follow him,” it said. He added “that the dog always barks at him when he jogs by” the animal’s house, the case report said. Godejohn was able to verify with Pound Ridge Veterinarian that the two-year-old dog is named ‘Buzz’ and identified the animal’s owner.

Animal 411

New Canaan Dog Bites Neighbor

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A New Canaan dog underwent a 10-day quarantine that finished this month after biting a neighbor, records show. The male black Labrador mixed-breed canine, a 6-year-old named “Fishwick,” was leashed when he bit a woman in their Heritage Hill Road condo complex, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

The woman “told this officer that she was walking on the stairs near her apartment when the dog bit her,” Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn said in the case report. She’d been “bit or scratched on the left arm, leg and back,” it said, and went to a health clinic on East Avenue for treatment. The woman knew Fishwick and Godejohn reached the dog’s owner. Fishwick is up-to-date on his vaccines and registered with the town, the report said.