If the city’s bylaw department has ever needed a sharp set of teeth, it’s for cases like this, where a group of frustrated homeowners are at their wit’s end over the incessant barking of a neighbour’s dog.
Toothless barely begins to describe it.
Over a decade of woofing, Nero the 11-year-old German Shepherd has been the subject of 23 formal complaints from seven different neighbours in the community of Millrise, all of whom claim the dog’s day-and-night barking is driving them crazy.
Twenty-three complaints, and the barking still continues, as Nero paces for hours at a time in his outside pen, apparently bored or possibly lonely.
“This dog is alone on an eight-by-ten concrete pad for eighty to ninety percent of its day,” said Michael Tighe, who lives two doors down from Nero.
Tighe is the resident who finally brought this tale of barking madness to the media, after realizing the city’s system of repeat warnings and occasional fines was never going to bring peace into their lives.
He says summers are especially brutal, with Nero left outside at night, and the sound of canine complaints forcing neighbours to close windows.
“The past two summers, the dog often whimpers and howls at night, and it wakes my wife up because she’s a light sleeper,” said Tighe.
“We have no air conditioning, and we can’t have windows open because of the dog, so we have a collection of fans to try and bring cold air up from the basement.”
Speaking of air conditioners, city council recently tried to pass a tough bylaw forcing the units to stay quiet, despite stats showing complaints are barely a blip on bylaw’s radar.
Barking dogs, on the other hand, are a major municipal nuisance, with 2,488 cases registered in 2013, and 1,838 complaints made up to October of this year — but somehow, bylaw officers are shackled by laws that have no teeth.
They can issue warnings, and for stubborn cases, a fine. But there’s nothing else, and if an owner ignores the warnings and isn’t concerned about the cost, the city’s hands are tied.
“I definitely think we need the bylaw re-examined — something needs to change, so the onus isn’t on the community to play watchdog,” said Tighe.
No matter how many neighbours complain about a dog barking, even through neglect or absence, the city’s bylaw department has no power to take an animal away.
When Nero’s owner recently went away for four days, leaving the dog outside and a friend to occasionally stop by and feed it, Tighe said the barking was around the clock, for up to ten minutes at a time.
“I finally said enough is enough, and that’s where we are today. The last thing we need is our sleep interrupted,” said Tighe, who has also spoken to the Humane Society about the condition of the pen, which he says is often filled with feces.
That’s one problem with Calgary’s current law: to establish a pattern and take the evidence to court, neighbours have to carefully document the time of every bark over a five day period.
In the case of Nero, the city’s bylaw department says that was rarely done — and complaints and the odd fine weren’t enough to persuade the owner to keep his pet silent.
“For barking, we can’t take a dog away,” said Damian Cole, spokesman for bylaw. “We don’t have that power at this time.”
Cole says bylaw has already fined the owner, and now, all they can do is suggest additional training or negotiating with neighbours.
Or perhaps it’s time city council drafted a bylaw that amounts to more than growls — but in the meantime, the owner of Nero may be solving this problem himself.
Faced with bylaw pestering and public scrutiny, Ilie Halmaciu says he’s had enough and plans to surrender the senior shepherd to the nearest shelter.
“I don’t have a choice,” said Halmaciu. “I love my dog, but right now, it’s just too much.”
(Calgary Sun - Oct 27, 2014)
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