The safety of a chocolate Labrador retriever who lives near the Merritt Parkway is a concern for animal control officers, as the dog continually is getting off property and wandering the neighborhood.
The animal was picked up twice on the morning of April 4 in the area of Gerdes and White Oak Shade Roads—the latter a street where residents say motorists regularly speed—and then again this past Monday, said Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt.
The animal is licensed, she said.
“This is now a serious situation with this dog roaming because White Oak Shade is right by the Merritt Parkway there, and the dog will get hit sooner or later,” Kleinschmitt told NewCanaanite.com.
The lab is older and its owners have an invisible fence that doesn’t work, she said.
“Basically, this dog just wants to be with people, it goes to a house with people—that’s where it was [Monday],” she said. Its owners leave for work for the day and the dog takes off for its jaunts. They’ve vowed to put up a physical fence (as did a South Avenue dog owner, whose pet breached an invisible fence last month and got into a tussle with a leash-walked dog passing by).