New Canaan Dog Bites Child at First Presbyterian

A New Canaan dog is out from under a two-week quarantine after biting a Darien girl last month, according to police.

The incident—whose details the victim’s mother and dog’s owner disputed—occurred on a Tuesday at 178 Oenoke Ridge Road, according to a New Canaan Police Department incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The address is the location of First Presbyterian Nursery School.

At about 2 p.m. on May 8, the girl outside was petting a 6-year-old miniature Australian shepherd when the dog traveled to a grassy area and its owner called the animal back, the report said.

The dog then ran toward the girl and the Darien woman who notified police of the incident heard the child cry out, according to the report.

The following day, the head of the NCPD Animal Control section phoned the dog’s owner, an Oenoke Ridge Road man.

According to the officer’s report, the man said that “as the dog was getting into the car,” the child “grabbed the dog around the neck” and the mini-Aussie “reacted,” the report said.

The dog’s owner told police that no one else witnessed what happened and said he “felt the incident had not been relayed to me correctly by [the child’s] mother and that he was the only one who actually saw what happened,” the report said.

The man said he was concerned about an injury to the victim though he noted that he saw the child the following morning and “saw no visible sign of injury.”

According to the report, the child was in fact injured, according to a photo, though police redacted information related to the nature of that injury in releasing the incident report.

The man said he did see the same photo and that “it was very upsetting to see,” though he appeared to question why the child was able to return to the Oenoke Ridge Road facility the next day.

The officer notified that man of the state law requiring biting dogs who attack off of their own property to be quarantined for two weeks at a third-party facility, and received a certificate showing that Rhyse was up-to-date on rabies shots.

Police the following day, Thursday May 10, contacted the Darien woman who had reported the incident and reviewed it with her, the report said. During that conversation, she conceded that she hadn’t actually seen the dog bite—only that she saw the girl with the dog from a distance heard the child scream, according to the report.

The animal’s owner subsequently traveled the NCPD headquarters, discussed the off-property quarantine and agreed to board the animal at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital for the two-week period, the incident report said.

The dog was due to be released from quarantine May 22, police said.