Animal 411
Police Investigate Evicted New Canaan Woman’s Reported Neglect, Abuse of Bird and Dog
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A woman while being evicted from her New Canaan apartment for failure to pay rent appears to have kept a bird and dog inside the unit for several days at a time without contacting or arranging for the care of the animals, records show. Police working to ensure the animals’ welfare observed that a cockatiel-type bird appeared to have been left on its own for a full week in mid- to late-July with limited seed and water that had run out while its owner—tenant Juliana Weitz—was away, according to a New Canaan Police Department incident reports obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information request. According to the property’s owner, a black poodle also had been left on its own in a crate in the bathroom for four days once before, the police reports said. During the investigation, while checking on the welfare of the bird, the head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section spotted the dog through the door of the apartment, wearing a black Velcro-type muzzle that appeared to prevent the animal from taking in water, panting or yawning. Subsequently, the property’s owner told authorities that Weitz left her apartment “for long periods of time, leaving the dog in the apartment and that the dog has begun howling,” according to a report from Officer Allyson Halm, head of Animal Control.