Town arms animal control officers with Tasers - FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather & Sports

Town arms animal control officers with Tasers

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FAIRFIELD, CT (WFSB) -

Fairfield is arming its animal control officers with Tasers to prevent officers from having to use deadly force when they come head-to-head with a vicious or out-of-control animal.

The Taser has 50,000 volts to help stop a threat when officers get to a scene with an out-of-control or vicious animal.

The town hopes the Tasers will stop what happened in Ansonia when a 1-year-old deaf pit bull was shot and killed after a dog attack. It ended up not being the dog involved in the attack. 

Fairfield Animal control officers will now have a way to take the threat away and then investigate what happened before a decision is made on putting the animal down.

"The last thing any animal control officers want to do is have to take lethal action against an animal that may be out of control for a moment," said one animal control officer.

Some dog owners support the idea as long as there is a threat.

On Wednesday, animal control officers received a day of training when they got the devices last week.

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