EXCLUSIVE: Animal control officer in Waterbury, Beacon Falls has previous suspensions

WATERBURY, CT (WFSB) - Documents shed some light on an animal control officer who was placed on leave by two separate police departments.

Animal Control Officer Patrick Dionne was put on paid administrative leave for how he handled a case of animal neglect at a sheep farm in Beacon Falls.

In that case, more than 100 animals were said to be living in squalor.

Some sheep reportedly had hooves so overgrown that they couldn’t walk.

Channel 3 dug through more than 70 pages of of Dionne’s personnel file with the Waterbury Police Department.

They revealed that it was Dionne’s third suspension.

He was suspended twice before by the Waterbury Police Department.

The suspensions happened in Feb. and March 2011 for “several occurrences of animal mistreatment” including a time he “walked a pregnant Pitbull while driving his city car.”

Dionne was also disciplined for not doing his job and admitting to spending a considerable amount of time at his computer doing non-work related activities.

Channel 3 reached out to the Waterbury police chief about the incidents.

Chief Fernando Spagnolo pointed out that until the latest investigation by the state, Dionne had no performance issues in the past ten years.

He said Dionne will stay on leave until the department figures out what happens with the investigation by the state.

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