I’m curious - suppose you were jogging and a dog started chasing you. You fear for your life and you attack the dog and kill it. What are the laws regarding that?
Let’s suppose you jog with one of those collapsible batons (not ‘hidden’, on your wrist or something), would that change anything?
It seems that there is not much left to do other than purchasing a tiger.
In my city, people need a special license to possess an unspayed/unneutered cat or dog, in addition to the regular dog or cat license. You might want to check on this. The “intact fee” is $50, which is really pretty low for such fees. Also, in my city, if an animal is found roaming, is taken to the shelter, and the owner reclaims it, the owner has to pay a fee AND get the animal fixed within a certain time frame.
Also in my city, animal control won’t come out if you just tell them that a dog or cat is loose in the neighborhood…if you want them to take the animal in, you have to have that animal confined. While I can see the point (they don’t want to come out to find that the animal is nowhere in sight), this is aggravating.
I’d also ask the city code division to come by and take a good long look at the property. Don’t ask the cops to do it, they don’t enforce the health codes.
Yeah, but not HOW Marxxx said. Driving a hundred friggin’ miles, and then booting the dog out into a random street hoping it’ll get caught by the local animal control in that area? That idea sounds about on par with people who abandon cats in affluent neighborhoods hoping the cats can find a new home before they get run over, or killed by, um, wandering and abandoned dogs. Except with an added two-hundred-mile round trip on top of it.
:rolleyes:
Has your friend contacted the city to see if your neighbor has violated any zoning laws? Does your friend’s neighborhood have a Homeowner’s Association and does your friend’s neighbor’s house violate any of the rules?
I don’t think that going on his property to fix the gate is a good idea. That may be trespassing*, and could get your friend’s father in some trouble.
??? - A developed community with an HOA and they somehow missed to two beaters parked in the back yard?
What’s wrong with going up to your neighbor and offering to fix the gate? Don’t sneak and don’t try to surprise him. Just say that you know he’s been busy and hasn’t been able to deal with the gate and offer to do it yourself. Depending on parts cost and your desire to get the gate fixed you may or may not wish to suggest he pay for the supplies while you do the work or you may want to pay for the parts yourself just to get the work done.
I also like the idea of video taping the dogs in action and the condition of his yard.
Nothing as far as I can tell. My parents fixed and painted a storage hut that a neighbour had started to build and never got around to fixing. Rather than getting pissed at the neighbour (who they generally liked) and staring out their window at an eyesore they just went over and finished it. (I think it had been unfinished for about 2 years when they did this).
The neighbour was too shamed to say anything, the eyesore was removed and neighbourly relations were restored. I suppose the neighbour probably bitched to his wife about my parents but the thing with neighbours is they don’t have to be your friends - they just have to be tolerable (and vice versa). Honestly, the wife in this particular situation probably told him he should be thankful the friggin’ thing was completed already.
Why not both? 
Having trouble with the neighbor’s dog-
enough to drive you nuts.
You want to plug him with a 22,
but you ain’t got the guts!
Pick up the phone, leave him alone
I’ll make a social call… [/AC/DC]
Another vote for “have her fix the damn gate and film the stupid dogs being assholes”. If there’s animal hoarding, call the Humane society or local shelter. They’ll care.
It depends on the HOA, not all of them are run by busybodies. If they can’t see it from the front and no one has complained to them, I can see it getting past them.
If you kill the dog it’s ok as long as there are no police around to witness it, right? :rolleyes:
How do your police enforce anything at all with this kind of restriction on enforcement? for fuck’s sake. I certainly hope the owner of the dog who was killed filed for restitution under the pitbull’s owner’s homeowner’s policy. If he didn’t, he should.
Take pics/videos, post online and give URL to relevant City Officials. Quote relevant City Code(s) and make it clear who is responsible for enforcing them. Guarantee you will get more attention. It worked for me just last week with my neighbor who refuses to feed, water, or shelter their (third in a year) dog. The last two were taken away due to neglect and City is tired of dealing with that family (so I am told). Animal Control told me she dislikes going to talk with those persons, so she obviously avoids confronting the people. Posting pics got their attention REAL fast, trust me. But since that dog is again being starved and left without shelter/food/water in near-freezing rain, well, more pics go up shortly with the URL again given, but I am going to cc the newspaper this time in case they want a story of local interest. Document things the best you can as it is hard to ignore ‘physical evidence’, especially when it is available worldwide/online.
Its kind of a last resort, but when cops do not take initiative, take it yourself (!). Before someone gets mauled/killed, or whatever. Please.
I know it’s a bit off topic to question your anecdote here, but WHY do they keep getting a dog if they don’t want to feed it or let it in the house? Did they just want an expensive living lawn ornament?
I can’t speak of them in too much detail, but they seem to get a dog for the kids (2 @ ~7-10 yrs old or so) to play with and after a few days/weeks, the dog is not in their minds any more. The dog is kept in far back of large yard upon dirt/mud around a large-trunked tree that catches the leash constantly so it can’t even walk much without snagging things or getting wrapped in the wire. Not trying to steal thread topic, but my neighbors are trashy and let all they have go to shit (so to speak). Like OP’s neighbors, I bet. Heck, their car seems to always have one or two ‘donut’ spare-tires on it and is driven all over, and house is missing portions of outer walls here and there with squirrels coming in and out of their roof all the time. I honestly think there is a mental issue of some type going on there, and LOTS of other things happen as well. At least we have not had to watch or hear the kids getting beat in their yard by mom and dad lately - working on the dog(s) getting treated humanely now. The Animal Control woman told me they paid a hundred dollars for this current dog so she is not fond of fining them or taking the dog away from the situation (“might upset those kids again”). I almost vocally lost it on that Officer at that point - like THAT matters at all. That is money that could’ve bought the kids shoes or something (and rarely do the kids seem to have much of anything, or even come outside to play!). Its a reeeeeeaaaaallllly long story overall, and I’ll leave it at that. I do not tolerate abuse of animals/people. At all. And I hope the OP stays as ‘aggressive’ as it takes to get some peace in their sphere of life, I really, really do. It sucks hard to see/hear such things as in OP and feel powerless to make it better/safer for those concerned.
Sometime, ya gotta just proverbially kick City Officials in their balls to make 'em do their job as defined by law(s), ime. Not always, but do it when necessary (!). Excuses are like assholes, I say…everyone has one but no one wants to know about 'em.
Pictures are dang near indisputable as evidence. Start the cameras rolling, OP 
Worked for me (somewhat but not done just yet)
Wow! Thanks for all of the responses, I really appreciate it a lot. Forgive me if I don’t respond to each one directly.
You would think that the dog having killed another animal would have been enough to do something, but nope. In some cities I’m sure this is true but not in her city and not in mine. In fact, one of the worst trauma patients I’ve ever worked with was a child who was attacked by three Great Danes who’d previously killed two neighborhood dogs and bit a jogger. They were put down after they mauled the child (he lived but was worse than sausage split from its casing when they flew him in) but before that the police claimed they could do nothing.
A few people mentioned videotaping and that’s a definite action. She’s going to keep her video camera by the door and her other neighbor who is a morning jogger said she’s going to carry her flip camera with her to video them in the morning.
She is definitely not opposed to sucking it up and fixing it herself but he doesn’t seem to be the most stable guy and she was a little afraid of his reaction since (as someone else mentioned) people who hoard tend to be really weird about their stuff. Quite literally all of his immediate neighbors despise him and have reported him for various things and it almost seems as though he is purposely not doing things to correct issues to “show them” he doesn’t have to.
Unfortunately the humane society is animal control in her city so they have been out to the house on numerous reports and have really done very little. I guess the department is only as good as the employees and they do not seem to care. She even took pictures of his backyard strewn with junk and sent them to PETA (even though she’s not a supporter of them) hoping they’d do something but they referred her to the animal shelter.
It might be smart for her to report the condition of the yard and mention seeing vermin although she’s afraid this might not work because this asshole is actually a city employee and might know people to get around it.
She would never harm the dogs or take them to a pound. Fixing the fence will probably be her course of action. I also think it might help her to contact the school nearby and let them know that the dogs have been acting aggressively toward some of the kids waiting for the bus and maybe THEY can get animal control going a bit.
I do agree with the people who are suggesting contacting the city code divisions/health department about the condition of the home. And Ionizer’s idea about quoting city codes and stuff sounds like a plan!
Thanks again, everyone. All ideas are appreciated (even buying a tiger)
bolding mine
None of this sounded normal until you said he was a city employee. Why, the best and the brightest always protect their own! :rolleyes: Seriously though, public employee corruption is disgusting and widespread. I’d say this has more to do with it than she realizes.
Once she or the jogger gets video, why bother with the cops? Send it over to the local TV stations, all of them. They love that shit. She’ll be filmed in a smart business suit or just plain nice clothing, showing off her taken care of yard, juxtaposed with his burning shithole. Double points if you can get the dogs to come over and bark at you and snarl while filming. And stuff gets taken care of as a result, because people’s asses will be on the line.
Let us know how it goes!
Just mace the damn things whenever they get aggressive off the property.