January is National Walk Your Dog Month, and Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary encourages Newtown residents to visit the 34-acre site at 8 Commerce Road, but the staff has a reminder for visitors they want to highlight.

Jenny Hubbard, president of CVH Animal Sanctuary, said, “My hope is that people will walk their dogs, and use the sanctuary as a place where they can not only get out with their pets, but use it as a time to think and be a part of nature.”

Despite the cold air, Hubbard described the sanctuary as “beautiful.” Getting out and walking with pets is healthy, and Hubbard described it as “humbling.” Hubbard’s goal has always been to provide the community with a place to reflect, enjoy nature, and find peace.

“I think there’s something beautiful about the human-animal bond,” Hubbard told The Newtown Bee. “Here’s the sanctuary as a destination for that sense of [humans] bonding with their pets … The sanctuary, not only for people with their dogs, it’s a place where there’s equestrians, and there’s families that come without their pets … more so now, we’ll be welcoming groups … It’s important for us that anybody that comes here … that you know that you’re going to be safe.”

Hubbard was alluding to the rule in the sanctuary that all pets must be on a leash. The sanctuary is a certified wildlife habitat, meaning small critters like squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks make their home in the expansive campus. Sight hounds can be especially tricky when small animals catch their attention; some, despite a dog’s perceived “gentle nature,” cannot help but run after prey. As Hubbard noted, dogs, even trained ones, are unpredictable, and may choose to run after cars, small animals, or other humans in the area.

Equestrians also find themselves trekking through the sanctuary, and horses can be quite skittish, as Attorney Lawyer Twillie pointed out.

“You don’t want your dog to get stomped, you don’t want them to get kicked,” Twillie said. “[Horses] might throw the rider. Under Connecticut’s dog bite laws, the owner of the dog would be on the hook for that rider’s injuries and their damages.”

Connecticut has “strict liability” when it comes to dog bites, meaning if a dog bites someone, the owner is strictly liable for the damages caused by that incident. In Connecticut, however, the law goes even further. Dogs may not even need to make contact with a person or other animal for there to be damages.

Twillie shared an anecdote: “There have been instances where the dog never even made contact with the person … I can remember one case where a dog was let off leash and started running towards someone who was afraid of dogs. They turned to run and their foot went into like a hole, and they broke their ankle. The dog just kind of stopped before they got there, but for your dog running at them, they would not have turned and ran, and therefore they wouldn’t have gotten hurt. And so the law is very clear: you don’t have to have contact for owners to be held liable for damages … that their dogs cause.”

Both Hubbard and Twillie emphasized the importance of safety in the sanctuary, but also in the community at large. Though some dog owners go through extensive training with their dogs and have perfected a call and response, like humans, animals have a breaking point and an unpredictable nature to them.

While the sanctuary is private property, it is a community space that welcomes many members of Newtown. Now that Catherine’s Learning Barn is complete, Hubbard and the staff at CVH Foundation plan to welcome more and more visitors to the sanctuary, including busloads of children, volunteers for the community gardens on site, and regular community members. Signs are posted around the sanctuary that all pets must remain on leash, which is also a Newtown statute.

“We’ve had a couple of instances where there were really close calls with cars and dogs just running. As much as you know your dog, they’re situations that you just can’t be in,” Hubbard said. “We just want to make sure that every single person who uses the sanctuary, person, human, animal, that they know this as a place of peace, serenity, and of safety.”

Hubbard added that if pet owners who have their pets off-leash create “unhealthy” or “unsafe” situations, the staff may have to make “considerations” regarding welcoming the community and their pets, but she does not want to get to that point.

Twillie added, “Newtown has demonstrated time and time again that it is a tight-knit, resilient community that has each other’s backs. There’s an opportunity here where there is something beautiful being done, and just another beautiful resource for the community, and you don’t want to have that ruined simply because you don’t want to have your dog on a leash.”

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.