Is reporting a neighbour worth the trouble it might cause?

This is a forum to discuss legislation and legal matters pertaining to the rights and welfare of dogs. Please remember to counter ideas and opinions with which you don't agree with friendly and helpful advice and responses.

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Jackson Tan

Lad about town

Barked: Tue Nov 15, '11 10:56pm PST


	There is a woman who lives a street down from me, so not really my neighbor, but she already knows I do not approve of the way she keeps her dogs so I know she'll know it was me if I complain. The story. This woman has x amount of dogs. (I'm not really sure because they are constantly coming and going, with x amount of kids.) At one stage she had a pitbull pup but that vanished. Last week I saw her kids trying to walk a 4 week old pittie/bully pup on the grass outside (it's eyes were barely open, so it was young.) There is a little male dog, jack russell thing. And then there is the bitch. The bitch is a chi crossed something - absolutely TINY, anyway. She was bragging about its 'chi' tremors when I saw her on the street once so I guess it has chi in it. It is running all over the town at all hours. I don't really care if she lets it get hit by a car, that's her problem (it's already walking on three legs, so I assume it's happened once), but recently it came into heat and is still wandering at large. It ran up to my leashed male dog on the walk and put its tail aside, and he almost mounted it. Never mind that he's entire and this dog is about the size of his head - I barely stopped it and pulled him home, but the bitch followed with the little male. The male went hysterical, nipping and biting my dog. They were both on my lawn, sending my dog wild with barking inside. She looks like she has had many litters in the past as her teats are dragging on the ground. She is small enough to slip through my fence so I kept him inside for fear of him mating with her. The size of the puppies would kill her - and I'm afraid the owner would blame me for it if they came out looking like my dog. This woman is a big, mean, angry customer. She looks the kind to cause trouble, and as I said, she knows I do not approve of her roaming dogs. I live in a very small town. And I'm terrified to call the authorities in case she seeks revenge or something. It has not run up and tried to get itself mated since, so should I just wait and see if she does something about it, or should I call the authorities, or should I just not let it get to me and not do anything at all? Also, if the dog does get into my yard and mate with my dog overnight, what should I do? Just send it on its way or risk a confrontation returning it? Not saying that will happen but I worry it might as it's so small it could squeeze through my fence pailings easily. I have been trying to keep my dog inside but I'm afraid something will happen. Is it worth calling the authorities for this or am I just overreacting and bringing trouble onto myself if I call?

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Dunlop

Dunlop-named for- the rider not- the tyer

Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 3:57am PST


	Can you grab the chi and take it to the vet? They may give her a "talk" about responsible pet ownership or convince her to spay the poor thing. That puppy is way too young to be away from it's mother and the kids where just trying to walk it across the front yard? If the fence has gaps big enough for the chi to get through, you can get this stuff called gutter guard from the reject shop and Bunnings that's a roll of plastic mesh - we used to use it to cat proof our bird cages. It's 6-12 centimetres deep and comes in a roll. Just weave it through the bars on the fence or around the base of the wooden uprights.

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Sanka

The ground is my- newspaper.

Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 6:24am PST


	If the dogs are running at large and aren't receiving vet care (the one walking on 3 legs) then that's illegal. I usually don't like reporting people either, but this really sounds like it's out of control and messing with you too. When people start throwing care to the wind and affecting others, that's where my line is drawn.

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Lucille

I am the Sock- Bandit!!!

Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 7:44am PST


	When it comes to the welfare of a dog, especially in a life or death situation, I will always say yes. It is worth it. I grew up in cruddy neighborhoods with my single mom. On more than one occasion it was very difficult to convince her to report someone to AC due to fear of retaliation. One Dobie was freezing to death, another dog was a victim of some of the most horrible abuse I have personally witnessed. AC did not hesitate to seize the dogs on all of our reports. We got hassled and threatened a bit. But a lot of tough people are dog lovers...and we soon found out that we had back up from surprising corners. Other people who were sick of watching the abuse and didn't know what to do quietly looked out for us. I hope you find that to be the case in your neighborhood. It also depends on the severity of the negligence or abuse, sometimes there's not much AC can do if the dogs have a bare minimum of food/water/shelter. Keep yourself and your dogs safe and good luck with whatever you decide.

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Mischief BN

CatDog

Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 7:54am PST


	A dog owner would never get away with that in the city (at least not in my city). Small towns have looser rules until they start having issues and then laws are written, and sometimes they end up being overkill. I second taking the dog to the vet or to a shelter. That's what you're supposed to do with "found" dogs. Likely, even though she probably hasn't microchipped her dogs, they will know who the dog belongs to (part of the benefit of a small town). There needs to be some intervention with the woman or there will continue to be problems. If you don't know how many dogs she actually has, she may have a hoarding problem. Hoarding is serious, and often the offenders think that they are "helping" the animals they are neglecting.

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Jackson Tan

Lad about town

Barked: Thu Nov 17, '11 5:21pm PST


	Thanks for all the advice. Dunlop I am just too scared to grab the chi because I'm afraid I will be caught. Also I do not have a driver's license and the nearest vet is at least 30 km away. She has lots of friends in the town and so if someone saw me it would be on - however if I catch it in my yard I won't heasitate to call the ranger! We don't have a reject shop in Echuca/Moama but I made a good fence block out of big rocks and stuff in the shed so that's out my mind at ease - Jack is home alone in the yard today so I didn't want to take any chances with that. However I have decided to call crime stoppers and talk to someone about the correct way to go about dealing with it. I think they will probably recommend me calling the ranger but someone told me that it is a good idea to speak to the police first. They were out again yesterday, she was there on the lawn 'supervising' but she missed her chi coming bare millimeters from being run over by a 4x4! That happened because it ran out towards my dog and I'd hate to think what would have happened if it got hit, if she noticed she'd probably blame me for it sigh. Once again I was mobbed by dogs - 3 this time - I was not happy I can tell you, was yelling in the end, her daughter sat there and watched the whole thing giving me dirty looks like 'how dare you yell at my unrestrained dogs'. My husband said he would speak to her as well - he has spoken to her before and commented nicely about her dogs so maybe she will listen? Otherwise all I guess I could do is print out the dog law from the council website, highlight the relevant parts and put it in her mail box overnight. I'm not sure if she's a hoarder or not, more likely I think her kids go back and forth between their fathers or the state and bring dogs when she gets them back for access. But hey I could be wrong! Also I think maybe some of them are other neighbor's dogs and they've just formed a roaming pack, I'll leave that for the law to sort out. Thanks everyone for the good advice/stories. Every small town (and even big ones) have their characters, it seems!

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Dunlop

Dunlop-named for- the rider not- the tyer

Barked: Sat Nov 19, '11 2:33pm PST


	If any of those dogs enters your yard (front or back for that matter) nab them and restrain them. Then call the ranger. One of my neighbours let's their dog aggressive Dane X out without a leash - If I spot it I turn around and go home! it's made two runs at my dog, making biting contact both times and scaring my mother as she was with me on the second go. I called the ranger last time and for a few weeks it was all good. The dog (Who is intact grrr) had a collar and tags on him, was on a leash and then it went back down the drain.

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Jackson Tan

Lad about town

Barked: Sun Nov 20, '11 3:19am PST


	Dunlop that really sucks. If they come into my yard then it's ranger time, alright! I wish people would just neuter their dog if they're not responsible to do the right thing. My dog is entire but I am very careful, you have to be or else you're just asking for trouble. Maybe you should call again so the ranger can once again remind them of leash law! Here in the country hardly anyone uses a leash and usually that's no worry at all, I don't mind, but dogs wandering about causing trouble (with or without their owner) is one of my pet peeves! I guess I'm lucky most people here are okay... At my last house the neighbour's bull arab used to jump the fence and mount my dog! He still has a scar on his snout where he used to bite him. Needless to say, when my lease ran out I was outta there like a shot! Some people just shouldn't have dogs.