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The New Adventures of SpikeDec 30 '01 (Updated Mar 01 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line I hope you never have to consider cruel and inhumane means just to get along with irrational neighbors.
I’ve been looking for inspiration to write again and haven’t had much. The last post I made here was also about dogs, but not in the same vein (some of you know what I mean-Sordid-1). I’d like for this to be Most Helpful to myself, since I’m hoping for some good advice from any attorneys (hello -29th _Candidate, thom413), policemen (hi trphilip, thom-maybe you can ask Jack), or anyone who has plain old good advice (yoohoo jkkelley, Horswispr, and nathsmom!) If this info is helpful to someone else who is a pet owner that would be a bonus. (…with apologies to badkittyM) Some background: My dilemma is about my dog, Spike. I’ve written about a couple of his adventures, but now he’s got a new one. If you’d rather not go back and read (or re-read) my previous posts about him, I’ll summarize. Spike lives with a friend of mine. Since I last wrote about Spike, my friend has acquired not only a husband and two stepchildren, but also a canine stepsister for Spike. This happy family lives in a house that backs up to a small valley with a lake. The area behind the house is a magnet for dirt-bikers, mountain-bikers, kids with firecrackers, joggers, and folks walking their dogs. For more than 3 years, Spike has lived there fairly peacefully (with that one exception of his encounter with a rattlesnake, but that’s just an unabashed ploy to get you to go back and read the previous Spike-Epinion). For the past year or so, he and his stepsister have been playing and keeping each other company when my friends were at work without too much mischief (save for some landscaping, and a torn up backyard swing or two). In fact, as puppy-ish as she is, his sister has kept Spike more active and younger than he’d been in a while. Considering that he is nearly 14 years old, I think that’s pretty good. The Accused (I thought about posting this under the movie title of the same name just to see how many NHs I’d get) About 3 or 4 months ago, some people moved into the new homes across the valley. My friends were at once relieved that the racket of the construction was finished and unhappy about the privacy that they’ve lost. But they (and I) never dreamed what would happen next. It all began with a phone call from the police department reporting a complaint that one of the homeowners across the way was complaining that the dogs were barking and disturbing them. Considering the fact that there are more than 20 dogs on the block, we have no idea why they decided to single out Spike and his sister. There is also a neighbor who practices his drums in the evenings, but maybe there is no ordinance against this, so they decided to target the barking. I’m sure the six pitbulls that live next door couldn’t possibly be contributing to the barking. And I guess the 3 little yappy dogs on the other side that bark every time a bird chirps or an ant walks behind their fence have absolutely nothing to do with this. (No, I’m not bitter.) But our dogs, who are only doing their jobs in notifying my friends when someone walks behind their property, are the ones who are being harassed. My friends responded by adding bamboo to their chain link fence so our dogs wouldn’t see as much to set them off, and thus to minimize the barking as much as possible. The Innocents (another movie title that I considered posting off-topic under-just to bug the TOS purists) The phone calls continued and then it progressed to visits from the police (who admit that they sat in the neighbors’ yard for an hour and never heard our dogs bark). [This was going on right in the beginning of the Anthrax scare which lead to a policeman relating that he was glad to come to the house as a break from opening people’s mail. He laughed as he told us that a woman insisted that he open an envelope and read it for her, and then when he told her it was an eviction notice she admonished him for reading her mail. But I digress.] This same peace officer told us that the complainants stated that “the dog with the white face jumps on the fence and barks” . Considering that both dogs are black (with the exception of a tiny bit of gray on Spike’s muzzle) and that geriatric Spike can’t jump anymore due to his 13 plus dog years (equivalent to more than 91 in human years), I think that maybe these people have nothing better to do than to blame the only house they can identify. Apparently the right to having your dogs protect your property is less important than the right to sleep until 9am because you live among other people. (Really! I’m not bitter.) The (not-so) Humane Society (ran out of movie titles, sorry) Eventually the Humane Society got into the action. They made several calls to my friends telling them that they had to respond and that if they did not, they would have to go into mediation with these people at their own expense. My friends talked to the police and the people at the Humane Society, inquiring if this could be considered harassment (since our dogs were essentially vindicated by the police) and they asked if they could file a claim. They were told that if they did file a harassment claim, the best they would get would be a restraining order (which wouldn’t stop the people from calling the police, not to mention my previous experience with a restraining order that wasn’t effective). They also informed my friends that if they were found “guilty” not only could they be fined, and get a ticket on their records, but they might have to give the dogs up….with the possibility of having to have them put down! (humane?!) My friends aren’t worried about their police records, and they are more concerned with the likelihood that this will continue regardless of mediation or fines. So the Humane Society worker informed them that they could get “bark collars” for the dogs, and then show the receipts and boxes as a solution. None of us are happy about having to resort to this cruelty, and it did make me think about Mark/Hard_to_Please and how he would have hated this inhumanity. My friends picked up two anti-bark collars. They watched the instructive video and are starting by putting the collars on the dogs without activating them. I may just write a review of the collars when we see how effective, and how inhumane or not they wind up being. Since Epinions is “no longer accepting contributions” about Pet Care I’m posting here anyway with no plan to have this read by many. But if I have any updates about the situation I’ll edit this (since we can [thank you EBD]). I thought dog owners should know that they are at the mercy of their neighbors and that they might very well lose their right to protection by having a dog that barks. But I would also appreciate any advice (legal or otherwise) as to if there is any action that we can take to stop this (what I feel might be) harassment. Please comment away if you have any thoughts. Thanks!  |
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