Dog-Mauling Death Prompts New Protocol

The deadly mauling of a 53-year-old New Haven woman has changed the way the city’s 911 center prioritizes the calls it receives about dog bites and attacks. It also might put new rules on the city books that would require more responsible dog ownership.

Public Service Answering Point (PSAP) Director Michael Briscoe and Deputy Director George Peet told the Board of Alders Public Safety Committee during a workshop at City Hall that a review of the 911 call for help on the day that New Haven native Jocelyn Winfrey was viciously attacked by two dogs at a Beaver Hills home in June prompted the change in protocol.

Winfrey’s injuries were so severe that she ultimately succumbed to her wounds and died at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The dogs were ultimately euthanized.

Alders wanted to know at the hearing last week what the city was doing differently to make sure something similar doesn’t happen now, or in the future. They also sought ideas for ensuring that people who own dogs of all breeds act more responsibly.

Briscoe said now, if someone in the city contacts 911 to report that a dog is biting or attacking a person, that will be treated as a Priority 1 call and the fire department will be dispatched. He acknowledged that was not the protocol prior to Winfrey’s death.

“All the damage that you described, because I listened to your description, the caller could not do that,” Briscoe told Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, who witnessed the attack and joined neighbors in trying to stop it. Briscoe said that the inability of the caller to see and describe what was happening on the ground beyond that dogs were attacking left a lot of ​“gray area” for the call taker. The new protocol eliminates that gray area.

“Listening to tape and intensity, I believe that the fire department should have been there,” said Briscoe, a former firefighter. ​“We have the privilege of hindsight, but in the moment of the call and the call taker moving down the call card, couldn’t ascertain the information necessary.”

Peet added that before the attack on Winfrey the call taker was looking for answers about whether the victim had uncontrollable bleeding, whether the person was unconscious or having chest pains. Because the caller couldn’t answer those questions, the standard response was to send the police and American Medical Response (AMR), but not a Priority 1 level.

Going forward, Peet said if a caller reports that there is a dog attacking or biting, it will be considered a Priority 1 and the fire department and AMR will be dispatched.

Alders held the workshop this past Tuesday to gather ideas and best practices for dog ownership and response to dog bites and attacks. City Animal Control Officer Joseph Manganiello told them his tiny staff manages anywhere from 60 to 100 animals in shelter a month. On average, they investigate about five animal biting incidents a month.

Manganiello told alders that currently the city doesn’t have any requirements of dog owners beyond what is required by state statute. He encouraged them to consider what other cities New Britain are doing to stop unlicensed breeding, and to prevent bites and attacks by identifying dogs considered to be vicious and dangerous, based not on their breed, but on their behavior.

He added, though, that there wasn’t much that could have been done to prevent the Winfrey attack. The dogs’s owner brought them to New Haven from Florida a year before the attack. They were shelter dogs. According to their state veterinary records , which were obtained when the dogs were surrendered by their owner to the city shelter after the attack, they had to be muzzled during their visits.

“Those dogs were vicious,” Manganiello said. ​“They wouldn’t have made it through our program. But they were only [at the Ella T. Grasso house] for a year and we never got any complaints. There really wasn’t any way for us to know.”

Now that firefighters are going to be the go to first responders for dog bite and attack calls, fire union President Frank Ricci said, firefighters would like some training from animal control. He also recommended that alders, firefighters, police and PSAP convene a working group to recommend other solutions for better response to such calls.

“This is a tragic incident that has really been tugging on my mind and heart,” Alder Wingate said. ​“After what happened to the young lady over there, I thought it would be best to bring people with some experiences … to provide guidance and leadership on how to proceed. Unfortunately we can’t stop what happened, but we can come up with some best practices moving forward that can save someone else’s life.”