As usual:
On to the topic at hand: My esteemed peer, Dogs Bite Decatur AL is having some MAJOR difficulties with the pit breeder next door. The most immediate problem being INCESSANT, USELESS, FOUL, NOXIOUS BARKING! They cannot sleep in their home!
Nobody should have to live like this. I found out the other day that some places ban ICE CREAM TRUCK BELLS for disturbing the peace! Yes, but FIDO gets to make all the noise he wants! Like, we are NOT living under the hegemony of the Dog?
Barnyard animals are banned except in rural areas and those zoned agricultural. The biggest cat I can own is a Maine Coon (average weight ~18 lbs), yet Decatur's neighbor gets to have a backyard full of massive Mega Supermaulers? How fair or reasonable is that?
In any case, read the article. Think about it. There has to be a solution here. I have posted on the page in question a couple of times.
This blog has a VERY astute readership and commentariat. I have exhausted my means (for now), but I'm sure some of you people have an idea or two. There HAS to be a solution here. Read the article, and comment here or on Dogs Bite Decatur Al.
And so comes the rebuttal: All dogs bark. This is true. But we shouldn't be used to dogs barking for long periods of time throughout the day...every day...all across the neighborhood...
ReplyDeleteI believe I would like dogs SO much more if not for barking. The neediness isn't fun either but if I don't have my own dog, it's not imposed on me. Given the state of Dogocracy in this country, I agree with your suggestion of looking for outside activity that could get her neighbors in trouble, such as drug dealing.
After years of banging heads with a few idiot neighbors with dogs that constantly bark, I can tell you there's very little you can actually do. In fact, trying to get anything done will usually result in harassment - which the authorities will care about as much as the barking dogs.
ReplyDeleteA lawsuit, small claims or civil, is about the only option there is. Even that doesn't necessarily stop the problem, only provides compensation if you win.
This truly sounds like the ground floor of a breeding operation for fighting dogs. If there is one thing that is not tolerated by any AC it is dog fighting.
ReplyDeleteThe local police should have a hotline where you can turn someone in anonymously. This requires they say nothing ever to these neighbors or anyone else. Don't complain about the dogs. Don't discuss it with neighbors.
The idiots next door set up the same kind of pens with spaniels with the idea of making money. That was 8 years of pure hell as those dogs yammered on and on for days on end. I think they finally inbred themselves to death. Not one puppy ever made it out of there alive. This was before we had AC of any kind. On humid days it smelled like an open sewer since they never cleaned the pens. In fact some of the dogs were in pens nailed shut. they threw food and water over the fence. We had flea infestations and flies. Most towns have some kind of sanitation law. I would just tread very carefully since someone who is breeding dogs in this manner probably has a host of other shady activities going on.
Other than suspecting illegal activity, and the dog fighting angle might be the best one, and calling for it, I'm not sure. Maybe as the odor and feces build up, call the building inspector and health department. They have to enforce the codes. I feel so bad for Decatur, living next to vicious nasty menaces is not good for your mental health.
ReplyDeleteA lot of information is available on the internet. We all know that. Many records are public.
ReplyDeleteDo they own or rent ?
Contact the landlord or if you can find the lienholder perhaps you can find out who their homeowners insurance is. I can't believe they are covered for this kind of operation. Local laws often require a kennel to have a permit. Some have intact dog fees and litter fees. Someone breeding dogs in this fashion are not looking to breed or sell house pets. I'm guessing based on years of experience that the inside of their home is a worse nightmare than the outside. It's very uncommon to have a debacle like this outside and the inside of the home normal. Again if there is animal abuse there is usually some form of emotional or physical abuse present in the home. Even if you hate pits like I do there is no excuse to house them like this. It's simply making them more aggressive. It sounds like these dogs are in fight mode constantly.
Putting up cameras worked for us. You need to know your opponent and think this kind of option over carefully if you think drugs or dog fighting are involved.
My understanding is the miscreants own the property in question. So, that creates an opportunity to sic the insurance company and lender on them. If they are not insured, the lender may recall the loan.
DeleteThe lender may also recall the loan if the occupant is significantly degrading the value of the property, and/or there is some other good reason they would not be able to satisfy the lien. This segue's into your point, as its a near certainty the inside of the house has been destroyed. After years of urine and feces soaking into the soil, the land will take years to recover. If the dogs were to leave today, it would stink for years. So, essentially you have a property that is ruined inside AND out, and the situation continues to degrade.
The fact that local health departments allow this thing to continue is a total disgrace. This is what you end up with when everybody is expected to adore Fido no matter what.
You also have the issue of the urine and feces soaking into the ground and polluting below ground aquifers. It will also run off into storm drains, lakes, rivers and the like polluting the above ground water supply.
DeleteIn all honesty barking seems like the least of their troubles. It's just the alarm system for the impending disaster. Which will either be their home being vandalized since miscreants attract other miscreants and will use the neighborhood like a shopping mall or those dogs will get loose and the odds say they will. The damage is anyone's guess.
DeleteI don't know the layout of the neighborhood in question, but in a case like this there may be the possibility of getting other neighbors on board. Typically, no one wants to get involved. However, there might be a neighbor or two that will join forces. You may also get other friends and relatives involved: A large group descending on the next town meeting might stir some action.
ReplyDeleteSome time ago I read of a woman with neighbors whose pits would stare at her sons whenever they walked by. The dogs unnerved some other people in the neighborhood, so they banded together and managed to either get rid of the dogs or the entire household, I don't remember. You may be on to something.
DeletePeople adopt those dogs to project intimidation. They are bullies who like to scare and harm others. Bullies are generally very weak and cowardly, so they often back down at the first sign of strength.
DeleteWith that said, these are not the most stable personalities. They might lose it and try to kill everybody - caution is wise.
If there are children in the house, try a call to DCS, maybe that will get the ball rolling. If they treat the dogs that way, there's a strong possibility they mistreat any children as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/qa/cruelty_violence_connection_faq.html
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking you should see some evidence of child neglect or abuse before calling DCS. Well trained AC officers have a keen nose. We live in a world where to get action you have to push the right buttons. This reeks like the arm of a dog fighting / breeding operation. A tip on a hotline to the police would probably be a good starting point as long as the dogs are visible to other homes or from the road.
Former next-door neighbors had a pit bull. And I wrote not one, but three, letters to their landlord. The letters were meant to put the landlord on notice re: his risk of legal liability. The pit bull remained.
ReplyDeleteThen, in January of 2014, the pit bull got out and I came face to face with it as I was bicycling away from my house and headed to a meeting. Fortunately, I wasn't attacked.
When I got home from the meeting, I called my county supervisor's office and reported the pit bull to an aide. Who called animal control.
Well, this is Pima County, AZ, and let me tell you that as a general rule, our AC couldn't care less about loose pit bulls. Unless they're forced to.
In this case, they were forced to by the county supervisor's office. My call got the ball rolling, AC came out that evening, and I do believe that my neighbors were cited. I seldom say Bully the pit bull after that. (Yes, Bully was his name.)
Then came late June of last year. Bully took umbrage at the fact that I was inside my house, adjusting a window. He came charging over to the fence, in full barking frenzy. Next thing I heard was the sound of the owner, beating Bully with a garden house.
A week later, same thing happened. I'm in my house adjusting the window again. Bully comes roaring over to the fence line in a barking rage.
Unbeknownst to me, a neighbor called the police for a welfare check. I saw it on our neighborhood police call log. A few days later, Bully and his owner moved out. And they did most of their moving under cover of darkness.
You make a good point about where and who you make your complaints. I have never got much traction calling AC . It was the late night rant to the county sheriffs dispatch number that started getting results.
DeleteThis comes under my personal theory that everyone has a boss. Find them. I am not a particularly aggressive person. Often before one of these types of phone calls I write it out on my notepad to make sure I cover all the points in an articulate manner.
Although the night I called dispatch I was so hopping mad I think it impressed the operator that this was becoming more than a simple dispute and was about to escalate on someone's side of the fence.
You asked about a solution. Sometimes you have to look at a problem as a whole rather than the most outstanding component. Knowing where to stick the knife for a lethal blow so to speak can take care of a whole slew of problems.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Everyone has some sort of weakness. Key is to find out what that is and exploit it.
DeleteAgreed. In the case of my former neighbors, the weakness was the Tucson Police Department. Within days after the TPD visited the area where they lived, BOOM! They were gone.
DeleteI still think that those pit thugs were on the lam.
We're in Tucson once a year for the steampunk con at Old Tucson Studios. 3 legged pit bull service dogs seem to a fashion statement there. I was also sort of shocked they now allow dogs onto the property. They peace tie prop guns but let fangs into the place.
DeleteIt sounds like they're running an illegal breeding operation and probably have other crime activity going on, obviously drugs and connections to dogfighting. I think I would focus on those sort of crimes and the obvious animal abuse/neglect, since authorities unfortunately don't care about the stress and sleep deprivation caused by dog noise pollution. Maybe mention the nonstop, stress-inducing barking, but as additional evidence that the animals are being abused.
ReplyDeleteThis is crucial: Don't let on that you have anything against pitbulls. Everyone's ears will be closed to you if you do. You'll just be seen as biased pitty-hater interpreting things in a prejudiced way and making shit up to get the owners of the poor misunderstood pitties in trouble. Pretend you're fine with pits and that you're coming forward partly out of concern for their welfare, but partly because these dogs are a MAJOR safety hazard. I would bring that up as part of the "it's all how you raise 'em" school of thought. They are large, powerful dogs being raised in an environment of abuse with no contact with humans except for human cruelty. Serious fucking danger if these animals ever got out. If they try to brush you off, have the horrible story of Klonda Richey on hand.
Excellent points, especially the part about not being overtly anti-pit. Really, you don't want to appear anti-dog in ANY way as that is a straight shot to the "doghouse" LOL.
DeletePlaying these proverbial cards correctly is crucial.
Yeah, it is. Have a bucket on hand for this: "I just love dogs, and I realise pit bulls are no different from any other dog. In a loving environment they would be good dogs, like so-and-so's pitbulls. They'd lick you to death! But these poor pitbulls are being abused, neglected, isolated from positive social contact. They bark all day and night, and I cannot get a full nights sleep, partly because of the noise but partly because of worry for the poor, neglected things. All they know of the world is that it is cruel. This is the kind of treatment that can potentially make any dog become aggressive, not that it's the poor dog's fault, and these are particularly large, powerful ones, so unless they are taken away to a loving home and rehabilitated, their association of humans with abuse could be dangerous if they were to escape."
DeleteI needed a bigger bucket.
DeleteKeeping in mind the antics of moving the goal posts my neighbor is employing the Do everything but the right thing kind of thinking.
ReplyDeleteInstead of building a fence and making her dogs secure she now tries to let them out when we are not home. With bark collars on , or one at a time so they don't act like a pair of stooges. Last Sunday as they went off to have their sins cleansed she pulled by me stopped her minivan , backed up and contained her dog that was in the road. She looked quite huffy as she glared at me from the driver seat while her husband looked straight ahead.
The dogs are quiet at night now. That hasn't made them any nicer to run into. Perhaps what she's doing could be called juggling the goal posts ?
Yes, its interesting how they invest SO much effort in avoiding doing what they have to do. Its like spending a thousand dollars in court costs to avoid a $25 fine.
DeleteI figure there are a couple of possible explanations for this:
1) They have no concept of "net", i.e. cost/benefit analysis.
2) They are criminals who ENJOY doing the wrong thing so very much, the cost is irrelevant.