Animal 411

New Canaan Police Impound 10 Cats from Seminary Street Home

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New Canaan Police last week impounded 10 neglected cats from a Seminary Street home where the animals’ owner told authorities that kittens had died, records show. At midday on Oct. 27, a Monday, the owner of the two-family home and one tenant came to police to report “a large number of cats” living in poor conditions at the rental property, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. There were “cat feces all over the property inside and outside” and “the cats have fleas,” the property owner told police, according to the incident report, filed by Officer Sean Godejohn, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. There’s “a very strong cat urine smell inside the apartment,” the owner told police, and the neighbor said “he can smell the cat urine from inside his apartment next door,” Godejohn wrote in the report.

Animal 411

Six Kittens Re-Homed in Jelliff Mill Animal Neglect Case

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Six kittens found to be living in squalid conditions last month on Jelliff Mill Road have been re-homed, officials say. Over the past two years, the head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section saw conditions deteriorate at the Cape-style home located on Jelliff Mill near Ponus Ridge, according to a case report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn observed a “somewhat liveable condition” and “healthy” cats at the house on an initial visit in January 2024 and would go there “a number of times” over the subsequent months, according to an incident report he wrote Sept. 23. Yet the animals had never been brought to a veterinarian, he said, and in May of this year he received “an anonymous complaint for a number of cats living” in “horrible conditions” on the property, the case report said. During a site visit, Godejohn found that “[a] number of doors and windows were open to the home.”

“No one was home at this time,” he wrote.

Animal 411

‘Do the Right Thing’: NCPD Animal Control Launches Positive-Reinforcement Leashed Dog Campaign

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The head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section is trying something new to encourage dog owners to observe leash laws: positive reinforcement. Based on a different NCPD program that saw the agency reward seatbelt-wearing motorists with gift cards, Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn’s “Do the Right Thing” program soft-launched last month. “New Canaan Animal Control is now handing out gift cards and coupons to people keeping their dogs on leashes, thanks to generous donations from local businesses,” Godejohn told NewCanaanite.com. “Participating establishments include Pet Pantry, New Canaan Veterinarian Hospital, Club Sandwich and Spa Dogs. This effort not only supports our local economy and strengthens our community relations but also aims to ensure dogs remain leashed in parks.”

Godejohn said he regularly receives reports of off-leash dogs at New Canaan’s parks. 

At first, some of those receiving the rewards “were surprised” by Godejohn’s approach, “mistaking the interaction as a negative one,” he said.

Animal 411

Dog Bites Woman, 87, at Waveny House

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A German shepherd dog about 10 days ago bit an 87-year-old Ridgefield woman at Waveny House, records show. 

At about 4:15 p.m. on Aug. 22, the victim called Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn to report a bite that had occurred earlier that Friday, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. At about 10 a.m., the woman “was bit by a dog at Waveny House,” Godejohn wrote in his report. The victim “told this officer that there were two German shepherds at Waveny House and one of them bit her left thigh,” the report said. The dogs “were accompanied by two males in their twenties, and an older female,” it said.

New Canaan Police Department

Dog Bites Woman in Waveny Park

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New Canaan Police recently responded to a dog bite of a 52-year-old woman in Waveny Park. At about 4:40 p.m. on June 28, New Canaan Police Department officers were dispatched to Waveny on a report of a dog bite injury to a Norwalk woman, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. Through a man nearby who was able to translate, the police learned that the woman had been strolling on the east side of the park, near Anderson Pond, when she walked near two older men with a “big white dog,” the report said. The dog had been on a leash but was not contained and bit the woman’s left arm, the incident report said. After being bitten, the victim walked to her vehicle in the parking lot near the girls softball field and contacted the police, according to the report.