Police last week cited a 39-year-old local woman for violating New Canaan’s leash law, following an unusually brazen interaction with Animal Control at Waveny.
Around midday on Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, an officer in the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section spotted a dark brindle French bulldog puppy bounding past her van in a parking lot near the main house, according to a police report.
Climbing out of the Animal Control van, the officer then spotted a woman who started jogging off in the same direction as the bulldog, toward the park’s trails, according to a police report.
Some minutes later, the same woman reappeared on the large field down by Lapham Road, near where the golfers go, and could be seen running up toward Waveny House, the report said.
The bulldog was not immediately visible and so the Animal Control officer wondered whether the little beast even belonged to the exercising woman, it said.
The officer drove across the large field to collect the animal and, with the dog secured inside the van, traveled back toward the parking lot, the report said.
There, the woman—running finished—started waving toward the van and asked whether the officer had her dog, it said.
Told that yes, the officer had a dog in the van, the woman responded that she did not believe in the rules, and so she wasn’t going to follow them, the report said.
The woman had no leash for the dog at all, and when asked to hand over her driver’s license in order for the officer to issue a ticket, responded that she was not done stretching, it said.
She was fined $90—it comes to a total of $136, with state processing fees—for violating a section of the Town Code dealing with control of dogs in public places.
Under the first part of Section 6.8: “Except in a dog run established by the Town, no person shall bring any dog into any public park, public playground, public school grounds, public parking lot, public street or sidewalk unless the dog is on a leash or lead that is no more than 25 feet in length and under the control of its owner or keeper at all times.”
After receiving the ticket, the woman walked back to her car in a parking lot at Waveny, her still-off-leash dog following to the vehicle, according to police.
When my son was a toddler, a small, friendly dog ran up and knocked him backwards in a park by placing his front paws on my son’s chest. My son didn’t hit his head hard but easily could have. Recently, my elderly mother-in-law was knocked over by a dog near Kiwanis Park.
Your dog probably seems friendly and harmless to you, but dogs behave differently toward strangers. And even dogs just being friendly can scare and injure the youngest and oldest among us.
Like this dog’s owner, I also run. I’m frequently scared by dogs who bark at and chase runners. Luckily, most stay on their property, but not all do. Many times I’ve been scared and worried about protecting myself.
Leash laws exist to protect us. If you willfully let your dog roam free, you’re potentially scaring and endangering every young and old person your dog comes in contact with.
If Trump got wind of this woman and her arrogant attitude he would throw her in jail for a year or deport her!. The many people who think that the rules don’t apply to them should at least be banned from the park permanently…. after they have stretched, of course.
Sounds like quite a pleasant lady, and of the type that I see far too often these days around here. Where do these people come from where they assume rules to be below them? I highly doubt $136 will cause her to change her actions either.