Police last month issued a restraining order regarding the future handling of an Orchard Drive dog after the animal bit someone for at least the third time in four years.
The Labradoodle, ‘Bodie,’ bit a young girl on the right calf on a Sunday last month, according to an incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
The girl was bit after she entered the home Feb. 2 with her mother and siblings, and the child “did not share the incident until they were leaving and back in their vehicle,” according to the incident report of Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. The victim’s mother contacted police the following day. The woman “cleaned the wound and did not seek medical attention,” and took a photo of her daughter’s leg that she sent to Halm, the report said.
“It should be noted that … Bodie’s owner was present when [the girl] told everyone she was bitten,” Halm said.
Bodie has a bite history, with police cases from 2017 and 2018, the report said. Halm confirmed with Bodie’s Stamford veterinarian that the dog’s rabies vaccination had expired, it said.
Contacted Feb. 3 by Halm, the dog’s owner said she was aware of the bite but didn’t know both of her dogs had expired rabies vaccinations. The owner agreed to take Bodie to a licensed facility for a 10-day quarantine and to comply with the terms of a restraining order submitted to the state Department of Agriculture.
The owner also was cited and fined for nuisance dog and two counts of failure to vaccinate.
“I further advised [the owner] that I was told there may have been other bite incidents that have gone unreported,” according to Halm’s report. “[The owner] indicated that there were a couple of minor incidents involving ‘Bodie.’ ”
The Labradoodle underwent the 10-day quarantine and “did not appear to show any clinical signs of rabies,” so he was vaccinated on discharge and returned home, the report said.