Thread: Stopping a barking dog at 100 paces

Originally Posted by RisingSun

When councils get involved in Barking dog complaints, the usually work under the local law of minimum standards for keeping an animal, in this case the animal being a nuisance.
In order to satisfy that the animal is a nuisance it is the authorized officer that needs to be satisfied the animal is a nuisance, not the owner or the complaining neighbour, because any paper work issued has the authorized persons signature on the bottom and the authorized council officer is the one who has to defend the decision to remove the dog, fine the owner etc to the magistrate / judge.

To be satisfied that the animal is a nuisance time must be spent establishing the animal is a nuisance not just a neighborhood dispute ( time = money) that is why councils try every other solution first and ask the complaining neighbour to fill in a time sheet to establish a pattern of barking. Officers will usually do a neighborhood survey. Then officers know when to go to the area (not usually parked in front of the animals residence) and then record everything they hear, which means everyone else's dogs as well, roosters, birds, people walking in the streets. If this monitoring happens at 3 in the morning the officer is on penalty rates, and to establish it as a problem this needs to be done at least 3 times.

The cost to council when the officer starts monitoring starts to add up, and you can guarantee the complaints start coming in about officers sitting around doing nothing wasting rate payers money.

In the end somebody hates the outcome, the owner is annoyed that they have been told to shut their dog up or they will be fined, dog removed, or asked to remove the dog from the shire. Or the complaining neighbour is annoyed that you tell them that the level of barking is acceptable and no further action is taken. The public then complain to council that their officers should be doing something more constructive then bullying people about their animals. Pile that on top of all the other abuse these officers get on a daily basis and you can see why council will try everything to solve the problem before it gets to council intervention.

After all that the officer then probably gets to go out and become the parking officer to reap the rewards from its rate payers .
Perhaps I should get a real job, like I get told on a regular basis.

As an ex Council staff member, supervising Animal Control Officers, you've got it in one! I'm surmising you've either worked in Animal Control too, or been through 'the process' with a dog complaint yourself, as most people don't have anywhere near that depth of understanding!! Cate

if you had a issue with Cats around your house this simple video could be of use aswell

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbkLjjlMV8]How to stop cats ****ing on your car, The best cat video ever! - Craig Turner - YouTube[/ame]