Neighbor's barking dog...

[Radical Ice]

The neighbor directly behind my home has a young dog that has been barking non-stop for the last 3 months and never seems to have food or water. He barks incessently, but is quite friendly and very loving to me and my girlfriend. We like animals, check on him from time to time, and feed him and pet him occasionally through the slats of our 6 foot high wooden fence that seperates the dog and us.

It's just a bit awkward when friends come over and we can't go outdoors or watch television in peace as his barking pierces right through the walls. It's starting to really gnaw on our nerves.

Anyway, I came home from work on a Tuesday last week and while in the driveway, I could hear the young dog screaming like a little girl (really!--the sound was chilling!), so I ran around the house to the back yard and looked over the fence to see what was wrong. Peeking over the fence, I was shocked to see that the dog was hanging by it's teeth on it's playtoy (a large stuffed blue teddy bear that was dangling from a chain on a tree). The teddy bear had a chain looped around it's neck, and the dog was hanging from it. The dog was swaying back and fourth, about 3 feet up in the air, like a pendulum, screaming and in obvious pain... I assumed it's teeth were caught in the chain. There was a man in the backyard sitting there and smoking a cigarrette, obviously entertained by the scene.

I asked if the dog was ok and he said, "I dun spake engeesh".

A woman came out and told me to get out of her yard. I was only looking over her fence, not standing in her yard, and told her I was just checking on her dog and thought it was in trouble. She said that this did not concern me, and that I needed to get back in my yard, mind my own business, and quit "sneeking" food and water to her dog.

I saw that there was nothing positive ever going to come out of that conversation, so to keep myself from doing something that would regret or probably get me put in jail, I quietly walked away. She was still yelling at me to "stop looking at her dog" even as I was walking back into my house. And yes, the dog continued to scream for at least 20 more minutes. I finally called animal control just to advise them of what I saw, but they said they would check on it.

We checked back with animal control a few days later and they said everything appeared fine, and that the high pitched shreeks coming from the dog was only because it was lonely -- not from abuse. They said that unless there were signs of abuse, they could do nothing....The dog is shreeking now, but it is much different than what I heard when it was swaying from the noose.

Oh well. I guess they would have to be there to witness this scene with their own eyes. It was very disturbing.

Anyway, the noise continues even as I type, and I'm wondering if it is something that my gf and I can live with. We've gotten to the point where we have to really crank up the volume on the TV just to drown the dog noise out. I work night shift, so I currently sleep during the day with earplugs, but my gf worries that if there was ever a fire or something that I would not hear the alarm.

The homeowner's association has done absolutely nothing.

We ask ourselves every day how long we can wait until the dog either grows out of it's barking phase (IF it grows out of it), and wonder about the sanity of it's nut-case owners.

Have any of you ever experienced this? Any resolution that won't put me in jail or cause me to worry about these psychos setting my house on fire?

 

[alien amp pharm]

I absolutely hate this type of situation.

Last apt I had a girl neighbor had a dog that barked non-stop. Pissed me off. Fuk'n rude people.

In the country where my parents live if you have a dog that barks nonstop &/or it shits on the neighbors yard, you usually found it dead via rifle bullet - no joke. A richy family moved in beside my parents house with noisy dogs and they soon learned of what happened to other's loud dogs, so they had them operated on to where they could no longer bark.

Just a couple of my stories.

 

[poultrygeist]

1) Do a ops and rescue the dog and give it to a family that will love it.

2) Make another call to animal control, this time embellish a little bit more. Tell them something like the lady said they were going to eat it and for you not to mess with feeding it because they are feeding him a diet designed to make the meat tasty.

3) File a formal complaint of animal abuse and neglect. Videotape what happened if you have to. If you can catch something bad on tape, then present it to animal control. The main reason they don't reinforce your complaint is lack of immediate evidence. Videotape is another matter.

If all else fails, get ahold of PETA and get their advice. PETA might was well be good for something; let them do their job.

 

[gettinlarger]

I would hang those assholes and see how they liked it. I HATE anyone who abuses an animal.

 

[THeMaCHinE]

Most cities have noise ordinances -- if you can't get them for abuse, you should be able to get them cited for noise (particularly at night if it happens?); I'd call the cops everytime the dog acts up.

 

[SurfinDaily]

I love to go hunting and stuff like that, but i hate nothing more than seeing an animal suffering or being abuse, so next time those piece of shit people come outside hang em high in their tree and take the dog to a place where it can live in peace and where you cant hear it....

 

[FitFossil]

In my opinion, leaving a dog outside for such length of time that it barks incessantly IS animal abuse. If you can't get any action via animal control, try the public nuisance/disturbing the peace route.

First find out from the police or city what you need to do to address this problem, and what sort of documentation or proof they want. If they want you to call the police everytime it happens, then fine, but on the other hand, that might work against you because they get immune to it.

It would also be helpful to get as many other neighbors as witnesses, so the police/city knows it's more than just one neighbor against another neighbor issue. That's why most of these cases don't get taken seriously because they think it's just a dispute between two neighbors.

 

[The Terminator]

Most cities have noise ordinances -- if you can't get them for abuse, you should be able to get them cited for noise (particularly at night if it happens?); I'd call the cops everytime the dog acts up.

This is what I would do (and have done a few times...but it is a slow process).

You could always take care of the problem yourself (read into that what you will, I am not condoning anything...)

 

[Y_lifter]

Almost all cities and counties have NOISE ordinances against
loud parties and Barking Dogs..

Find out what yours is:
Call the cops if the dog is barking after say 11 pm and after enough calls the animal can be removed as a nuisance.
Obviously if what you say is true with the people, you will go no where trying to reason with them.

Best thing I ever did in this situation was actually set up a tape recorder right next to the fence and recorded like 2 solid hours of dog barking.
Then I put the cassette on a loop and played it thru my stereo at a very loud volume at 2 AM with the speakers pointing out the back door until the people got the hint and brought the dog into the garage at night..

 

[alien amp pharm]

Best thing I ever did in this situation was actually set up a tape recorder right next to the fence and recorded like 2 solid hours of dog barking.
Then I put the cassette on a loop and played it thru my stereo at a very loud volume at 2 AM with the speakers pointing out the back door until the people got the hint and brought the dog into the garage at night..

Bro, that is awesome!