Return of the dogs

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Allegra

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Some of you may remember that at the end of the summer, we had issue with our neighbors allowing their aggressive dogs to climb over their fence into our yard, where they proceeded to destroy our kids’ swimming pool and swimming toys as well as poop all over the yard. Today, when I brought the kids home from preschool, I pulled into the garage and got out of my seat to get the kids out and got met with all three of the dogs in my actual garage, snarling and barking at me. I quickly closed the car door in order to protect the kids and then froze until the dogs backed out of the garage. There really wasn’t anything close enough that I could grab to hit the dogs. The closest thing was the snow shovel that was still out from the weekend, but the dogs were in between me and it. It was pretty terrifying. Unfortunately, the police refused to help again. Their excuses include, the dogs didn’t actually bite anyone, the neighbors say their dogs aren’t aggressive, they haven’t gotten out since the last time they got out (???), and the neighbors say their kid let the dogs out and a kid can’t be held responsible. He also tried blaming me for leaving my garage open. I’m not sure how he expects me to get from my garage to my house, since my garage doesn’t have a direct door into the house, but whatever. Its obvious at this point that he police are just going to keep making excuses not to enforce the law, so I’m not really sure what my next step is. I’ve considered going to the town hall, filing a complaint with the court, possibly hiring an attorney, maybe even calling one of those news stations that make a big deal out of people’s personal problems when the city or cops aren’t dong their jobs. Any advice?
 
If the police won’t help, I’d escalate it within the police department as well as find out what other city department can enforce or fine— animal control maybe? Yes I’d consider all options including talking to a lawyer about what your legal options are when these dogs are on your property, including calling animal control to come get them.
 
They aren’t typically left long enough for animal control to come out. They let them out long enough to bite a toddler and then bring them back in. Someone else suggested I call the county police, since there is actually a county law in force. I’ve been told that the county police don’t play, but since I live in a town, I’m not sure about "jurisdictions
" and all that.
 
I don’t really have advice. I’ll just say this wouldn’t be a problem if this happened to my family. I haven’t read your other thread. But this one enrages me enough.
 
I got ahold of my cousin’s husband who is an attorney. He had a couple of good suggestions. One was to approach it as a trespassing incident rather than a dog-at-large incident, which is apparently a “higher crime”. He suggested suing them for a nominal amount of money ($5) per incident in small claims court, which would somewhat “force the issue.” He also suggested approaching the city prosecutor and asking him to help encourage the police to enforce the law.
 
The consolation I keep getting from the police is that I’m within my right to defend myself against the dogs on my property. I guess it’s reasonable for a cop to expect a 8-month pregnant woman to beat three boxer-pit mixes to death with a shovel in front of her traumatized children so he doesn’t have to locate his manhood and write a ticket.
 
We had a neighbor that allowed their dog to roam all day. I called animal control about it. They came out and could not find the dog. Nonetheless, they left a warning on the person’s door. If you explain the situation and file enough formal complaints with animal control, perhaps they will take action. Also, I would video the dogs being let out of their house and running free. It’s difficult to refute video evidence…
 
I agree with jvickers, if you could get this stuff on camera, a picture of their dogs in your garage seems like it would be enough to end it.
 
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It would be hard to catch on video. I work during the day. The husband is a lot more responsible and he takes the dogs out on leashes when he gets home. It’s the wife and her mother who can’t be bothered. All the damage and poop has happened while we’ve been at work. We did get a photo of the neighbor kid in out yard and his mom told me that he was getting the neighbor’s dog out. (The dog wasn’t in the angle of the photo.) They don’t want to “get involved” though, but she did say she would call animal control next time she saw the fence-jumping dog in our yard. They owners started building a fence in early summer, but never finished it.
 
I thought that too, but now I don’t think so. The officer had the statement of three witnesses, including the owner of the dog, admitting that the dogs were loose and came into my garage, and still made excuses not to write a report. I think they will just keep making more and more bizarre excuses not to deal with the situation. I think that my cousin-in-law’s advice sounds pretty good. Asking them to prosecute as a trespassing infraction might push them into action. Apparently its a bigger deal because it indicates that they are coming onto our property, not just loose off of theirs.
 
Animal control DID say they would write a report, even if the dog wasn’t still at large. THey just wouldn’t confiscate the dog if it was already back in the house.
 
I would still call animal control. It might put some sense into the family with the dogs. For instance, our neighbor suddenly started keeping the dog in their fenced back yard after animal control left the warning. It has not been out since.
 
I already called them and am in the process of putting all the information together into a formal complaint.
 
No need to beat a dog. Get a can of pepper spray for your keychain.
 
I’m not sure a keychain of pepper spray is going to do much against three large and aggressive boxer/pit mixes, but wouldn’t it just be easier if I didn’t have to do anything to the dogs and the owners were responsible and the police did their job?
 
I’m glad you and your kids weren’t hurt. What a scary experience.
 
I don’t know what that means, but if it means a gun, it would mean that I would have to walk around with a loaded gun immediately accessible on my person at all times, which is not really practical. I can’t carry a gun at my place of employment, which would require me to leave it in my car, which would expose the gun to being stolen (particularly since one of my back doors only looks like it locks). I can’t really run into the house and grab a gun if with three snarling dogs backing me into the corner. There WAS a shovel, a hoe, and tree trimmers available, but I couldn’t reach any of them from where the dogs had me trapped.
 
We don’t have a council, though we do have a board of aldermen. Today is apparently the police chief’s last day, so that might explain some of it. The new chief doesn’t start until Feb 2nd, so I guess it’s going to be wild, wild west around here for a couple weeks! I haven’t hired an attorney yet, but my cousin’s husband suggested that I could file a trespassing suit with the county or try to contact the city prosecutor, who is apparently really busy because he’s the city prosecutor of several different townships. I did get a phone call tonight from a supervisor who said he’d send a car out and have another officer actually write a report, so that’s a good sign! We’ll see if it happens.
 
If all else fails, small claims court may be worth a shot. Having to pay judgments may provide the kick in the shorts the neighbors need to control their dogs better. This may take awhile as one needs to journal every occurrence and have as much accompanying audio and video evidence as possible. Support from the other neighbors helps too. Would be better if animal control and cops actually did their job, I’m sure there’s a local ordinance about loose dogs that they need to enforce.

Next time you see those dogs on your property, pull out your phone and record. It’s really good if you can catch them leaving landmines in your yard.
 
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