While Temple would not reveal what the investigation is about or who may be involved, his decision to close comes on the heels of a resident's complaint to town officials that Assistant Animal Control Officer Cori Wlasuk (pronounced Walsek) stole her dog four years ago.
"Because of the police investigation, I cannot give any specifics regarding this situation, but I can say that we will take any action that is deemed necessary pending the results of the investigation," Temple said.
At a Board of Selectmen meeting last week, resident Vickie Tkacz (pronounced Koch) said she recently saw a Newfoundland dog on Wlasuk's Facebook page and knew it was hers because she breeds dogs and knows them vividly — she also claims she has a DNA sample to prove the dog is hers.
Temple told Tkacz to file a police report, which she did. That investigation is ongoing.
Tkacz claims that a seven-and-a-half-week-old female puppy named Mia got loose from her house in May 2011. She told selectman last week that she and her children searched all over town for Mia but could not find her.
"I cried myself to sleep at night for this puppy, thinking she was dead behind a rock, eaten by coyotes or stolen from me," she said, adding that she is a single mother who sells the dogs she breeds to supplement the income she earns as a registered nurse.
Tkacz said she called Oxford Animal Control and left several messages with Wlasuk.
"I called at the wrong time because the woman that took my dog home was working when I called and deleted my messages and didn't log it," Tkacz said.
Tkacz said protocol at Oxford Animal Control is that a dog can be adopted if the owner doesn't come to retrieve it within seven days. After the seventh day, Animal Control Officer Sandy Merry returned Tkacz's calls and told her that the dog had been adopted because they didn't hear from Tkacz within seven days, Tkacz said.
Merry has been out on paid workman's compensation for more than a year after she suffered a shoulder injury on the job, leaving Wlasuk in charge.
Wlasuk did not return a message left at her home Wednesday. When asked by a reporter about the allegations last week, she said they were untrue and that she had documentation to prove it.
Tkacz said she is happy with the investigative work so far by the Oxford Resident Trooper's Office.
"I understand it's probably not very easy to investigate criminal charges on a town employee, especially one that is an officer," she said of Wlasuk, referring to her role of upholding laws pertaining to animals.
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| RIP Roxy |
Tkacz was in the news in July 2011 when Newfoundland dogs of hers got loose; one attacked and killed an 11-year-old Labrador Retriever mix named Roxy in Jackson's Cove.
Roxi's owner, Patrick Severson, then 20, tried in vain to save his dog but was bitten several times by Tkacz's dogs.
The town euthanized two of Tkacz's dogs and cited her for allowing dogs to roam and other charges.
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| Tkacz and her paid attorney hooked up afterwards and he moved in with her |
Temple told Tkacz at last week's meeting that he sees her dogs roaming from time to time.
"Well I'm sorry I can't contain them," she replied. "Give me a ticket, but don't steal them."
Clearly she is nothing but a backyard breeder who makes no attempt to breed for temperment. She can't even keep the dogs on her property and she's got aggressive ones that are mauling and killing large dogs like Labs. Newfoundlands are NOT supposed to be aggressive.
Even the Newfoundland Club of America has disavowed the Tkacz family of breeders:
“The behavior of the Newfoundland dogs in this incident is absolutely not typical of the breed. In fact, ‘sweetness of temperament’ is the hallmark of the breed and its most important single characteristic,” president of the Newfoundland Club of America, Patrick Randall, said in a news release.
“Also as owners and breeders it goes without saying that we are horrified that dogs of any breed, but especially Newfoundlands, would display this behavior and be so out of control that this could happen.
The breeders and owners of these dogs are not associated with the Newfoundland Club of America.”
Earlier:
- Connecticut: Man speaks on tragic mauling death of his dog by Vickie Tkacz's Newfoundlands
- Connecticut: Vickie Tkacz, owner of Newfoundlands that mauled and killed Black Labrador named Roxy has been arrested
- Connecticut: Attorney for Vickie Tkacz Has Different Story About Newfoundland Attack and Killing of Labrador
- Connecticut: Newfoundland Owner Vickie Tkacz 'Hostile and Uncooperative', according to affidavit
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