Allyson Halm

Police Bring Abandoned Bunny to ‘Blessing of the Animals’ at St. Mark’s

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Police say they found a neglected rabbit abandoned near the town dump last week. Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, said she picked up the one-year-old female bunny on Oct. 1 on Lincoln Drive. 

The animal was “found hiding behind a resident’s garbage cans, thin and matted,” Halm said. On Sunday, Animal Control Officer Jillian Bosch brought the bunny to the Blessing of the Animals at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

Animal 411

New Canaan Dog Owner Has Animal Euthanized After Dog-on-Dog Attack

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A New Canaan dog’s owner had his 9-year-old Wheaten terrier euthanized after the animal got loose one afternoon earlier this month, attacking and injuring another dog in the neighborhood, police said. The offending dog, Rosie, got off of her Fairty Drive property around 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, according to a New Canaan Police Department incident report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information request. Responding to a report of a roaming dog, Animal Control Officer Jillian Bosch arrived at a nearby home on Brooks Road and there encountered two local women, one of whom was holding Rosie, according to the incident report. The woman said she had been watching two dogs playing in a yard there while a teenage boy played hockey, according to Bosch’s report.

Animal 411

Two Skunks Unintentionally Caught in Traps

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Two skunks were caught in animal traps, one of which had to be euthanized, this week. Animal Control Officer Jillian Bosch received a call from Hoyt Funeral Home on Main Street about a skunk stuck in a trap on July 29. The animal appeared to be struggling and suffering upon Bosch’s arrival. She was able to remove the animal from the trap, but the baby skunk was having trouble breathing and had to be euthanized, Officer Allyson Halm said. Halm was called to a similar situation on Southwood Drive on Aug.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The town on June 15 received a “Notice of Deficit and Injury” filed on behalf of a local woman who suffered a “broken nose, severe head and facial contusions, abrasions, hematoma, bleeding in her eye [and] knee injury” because of a poorly maintained walkway out front of New Canaan High School. According to the notice—filed on behalf of a Parting Brook Road woman by Ridgefield-based Reilly Law Firm— a “protruding, bent, defective and uneven metal trim piece at the border of a paved walkway and grass outside the main entrance” amounts to a “defective sidewalk” that at about 6:45 p.m. on April 27 caused the woman to suffer “personal injuries,” presumably by falling down. The notice said the metal trim piece is located where red-colored paving stones meet grass, about 65 feet west of the building’s glass doors. ***

Police cited a 23-year-old Queens, N.Y. man for possession of less than .5 ounces of marijuana after an officer working at the main entrance to Waveny on South Avenue spotted him walking into the park for the fireworks on Tuesday with a joint tucked behind his ear. ***

The Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department at about 10:15 a.m. on June 28 responded to the New Canaan YMCA on a report that five or six sparrows were trapped inside the South Avenue facility’s new pool area.

Animal 411

‘He Started Squawking and Yelling’: New Canaan Animal Control Impounds Roaming Rooster

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A roaming rooster sought by authorities for nearly one week is in custody after an officer with the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section on Saturday afternoon collaborated with a North Wilton Road couple to corner the bird on their porch and net him. There appears to be a tag of some kind on the rooster’s neck and Officer Jillian Bosch said she’s hopeful it might yield some identifying information as soon as authorities can hold down the bird long enough to read it. In any case, the rooster will be advertised for seven days and then put up for adoption, she said. Animal Control is hopeful that a center in Stamford may want the animal, Bosch said, “and if not, we’ll try and find someone who is experienced in taking care of roosters.”

That may prove difficult, at least in New Canaan. Part of the Town Code that recalls New Canaan’s agricultural roots, Section 6-2 prohibits the keeping of roosters “in such location that the crowing thereof shall be annoying to any person occupying premises in the vicinity.” A complaint filed with the town’s health director could lead to the bird’s removal “so that such annoyance shall cease,” and a refusal to comply with such order could yield a $200 fine or “imprisonment in a common jail or workhouse” for six months, under the Town Code.