New Animal Control.Org

A System that Fails to Appreciate the Devastating Repercussions of Exposing People to Chronic Barking

It never fails. When someone from law enforcement wants to illustrate the broad spectrum of work done by a police officer, they always point out that their department handles "everything from barking dog complaints to the most heinous murders." The implication of the statement being, obviously, that barking dog cases are unimportant matters, unworthy of serious concern, and the least important task undertaken by an officer in the course of his duties. That pretty much sums up the attitude of the cops and the courts, but does that perception square with reality?

Human needs are called that because they NEED to be met. They are called needs, as opposed to being called options, because they are not optional. Our minds and our bodies need what they need and if a significant portion of those needs can not be met then, inevitably, dysfunction and trauma will eventually follow.

The most basic needs are the most important. We need to sleep, we need to rest, and we need to relax. You can go for a while without enough of the big three, but if you run a deficit on any of those essentials for too long you can bet that there will be a price to pay.

If a barking dog costs your family too much sleep, interferes too much with their rest, or robs you all of your ability to relax in your own home, you will suffer. And your life will take a turn for the worse, because when people are exhausted, tense, and sleep deprived for an extended period of time, things go wrong. People grow angy and irritated. Things get said. Bad decisions are made. Health problems develop. Bridges are burned. Careers are derailed. Marriages come apart, addictions get started, and children fall behind in school. One should never underestimate the potential of the prolonged deprivation of the essential needs, to upend ones' life.

Anyone who believes that frequent barking is properly classified as a "nuisance" must also believe that cancer is an inconvenience. When the essential character of your existence is transformed and the quality of your life is slashed, that is not a "nuisance." That is a full-blown crisis that should never be allowed to fester.

The fact is that, over time, a habitually barking dog in the yard next door has the potential to do far greater harm to a family than a robbery or an assault or some other major felony from which they may more readily recover.

What we need are anti-barking ordinances that can always be immediately enforced. What we have instead is a legal system that usually doesn't work at all and, on those occasions that it does bring about some result, it virtually never does so in a timely fashion.