What can I do?? Anything?? (not bunny related)

[Alicia Conklin]

We have these neighbors who are …not very nice people let’s just say.  They have 5 dogs living with them in a tiny 2 bedroom condo. They are BIG dogs too.  And I mean I know how crowded my house was with 4 dogs when my parents stayed with us and that was in a three bedroom much larger condo.  Anyway, so these dogs are kept outside.  At first all dogs were outside for maybe like 18 hours a day.  And then sometimes brought in.  Well now they are outside 24 hours a day but just two of them.  The two biggest ones.  They used to have access to the laundry room (our laundry rooms are outside in an attached room) so at first I thought it was fine. The laundry room gave them shelter from the sun, from wind, from rain.  But then recently since it’s been just the big two the guy took wood pallets and blocked them into the far end of his back yard type area.  (They’re all fenced in yards here but they are pretty small..especially the ones for the two bedroom houses)  Well Thursday of last week it started raining.  It rained until mid day Saturday.  These dogs were outside that entire time with NO shelter.  And during that time I never saw anyone feed them and never saw their food bowls moved so I don’t think they were fed.  It was POURING out.  These dogs were out there crying and shivering.  Not barking…CRYING.  I felt so bad.  We called animal control on Friday AM.  Told them what was going on.  Animal Control really didn’t seem that concerned but said they’d come look at it.  Well..they just came today AND they came to OUR HOUSE!! Not the house with the dogs.  They rang the doorbell, Mike got up and went to the door but before he could get there…like 40 seconds maybe ??  They were gone.  They were in the truck and pulling away from the house.  They had left a door tag.  On the back of the tag it was scribbled…like almost illegiblly “someone complain ’bout dogs w/o no shelter”.  WTH????  That’s it!  THey didn’t even give anyone TIME to get to the door!  If they had we could have told them that we were the ones who called and that NEXT DOOR is the home with the issues!!

So Mike called again.  But is there anything else we can do??? Is there any other agency that could help?  Police?  A shelter?  I don’t know what to do but these poor dogs are suffering out there.  There’s no gate to get over those pallets so I don’t even see how he IS feeding them?  He could go all the way around to the back of the building and get into THAT gate but I never seem him do that.  So either he’s disassembling the gate thing each time or he’s maybe throwing food over it?? The palletes are like 7 feet high.  Those poor poor dogs.  All they have is cement and dirt. 

[bunnytowne]

I hate people like that.  Gosh the animal control sure are stupid.  Next time I would think call the police.  Hopefully they wont’ tell you to call the 2 do nothing geeks again.

[Alicia Conklin]

well this is still happening..although I’m not sure if it’s against the law to have the dogs outside with no shelter if nothing is happening..like rain or what not. 

I actually just looked over there and I don’t see the dogs.  I really only get a good look ifI am in my kids room though since it’s on the second floor and closest to the neighbors so I can see over their fence, and I can see almost all of it and I don’t see them anywhere.  Maybe they got out?  Or maybe he got rid of them?  I’ll keep an eye out to see if he brought them inside or something..I’m hoping that maybe they weren’t his and he was dog sitting??  I mean at least that way I guess I can hope that they have better owners.  I don’t THINK that’s the case though, they’ve been there since these people moved in a few months ago. 

[babybunsmum]

oh how upsetting!  i hope you find out whats going on.  if the dogs were still there i’d say to keep calling & pestering the shelter until you know they reached the neighbors or until you got an update.  but at least they’re not outside anymore.  maybe the shelter followed up some time after your hubby’s last call & thats why they’re inside?  i hope so.  poor poor dogs.

[Lightchick]

That’s awful! I would totally call the police. It is absolutely against the law not to FEED your animal, at the very least! That’s really great of you to look out for the dogs that aren’t even yours. (I wonder where they’ve gone to, if they’re not outside?)

The other thing is, many cities have laws regulating how many animals you can own. 5 dogs sounds like an awful lot. They might be breaking the law, just in having so many.

[MimzMum]

You see whole yards of sled dogs getting seized here sometimes for not being fed properly or sheltered incorrectly. It doesn’t happen often and I think it takes an act of God, but it does happen. But our Animal Control is rather lame most times. We’ve had issues that we try to get handled by them and they just kind of shrug it off and tell us we need more substantial “proof” of wrong doing, like videotape or security camera stuff…which is like, yeah right.

Unfortunately, we had neighbors who thought it would be a good idea to poison two of our dogs that they didn’t like. These two dogs never did anything to anyone, but they used to patrol the yard to the property edge. I think these people just wanted to be able to get into our yard at their leisure. So we lost two good dogs to a couple of nutbars. We’ve got five acres here between us. Dog noise is at a minimum because of distance and trees for blocking sound. My only conclusion is that they wanted to trespass freely.

My concern too is, how are these dogs finding a place to go to the bathroom? I mean, do these people ever WALK any of these animals? I have to take both my dogs twice a day, just so they can keep from dirtying their areas. I can’t imagine, where these two large dogs were kept, that it was very sanitary.

[Alicia Conklin]

I can’t even IMAGINE where they are pooping!  Our dog goes in the backyard and we have to go out all the time and pooper scoop it and then my husband hoses it off every few days.  I can’t even imagine what filth those dogs are living in.  They have TWO big dogs out there!  All there is out there is some concrete and then some dirt. 

The dogs are back..I can hear them out there.  I can’t see where exactly they are because my kids are sleeping so I can’t peek in from their window.  But..my hopes of them not living there anymore are smashed

 

And that is horrible about your neighbors poisoning your dogs!!  That’s so sad   I just don’t know what is wrong with some people!!!

[MimzMum]

Well I don’t think it’s going too far then, to alert a higher authority and tell them your concerns. Those poor dogs need help. *nods*

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

First phone animal control and ask to speak to someone in charge. Tell them their not so bright employees can’t even go to the right address and tell them you’ll keep complaining about those dogs until someone does something. Watch to ensure they come and the dogs are removed or given shelter.

Phone every single day. Ask any neighbours you know well to phone as well. I don’t know why but AC does not seem very interested in doing thier jobs here either. Keep at them.

If you have to step in, you can take the dogs off the property and to a shelter saying you found them as strays…if you want to do something darastic or have to.

[Lightchick]

Ummm, K&K, I’d think entering their property and removing their animals is probably illegal. I believe even Animal Control needs a warrant to remove animals…

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL I know it’s illegal, BUT I have done it before! Not suggesting it really but if it’s darastic situation you can go for it…

 

…I did have to steal a dying kitten before and if someone hadn’t stolen Chuck from a porch he wouldn’t have made it…. OF course I don’t want to suggest that you put yourself at risk like that though! I’d keep on animal control and maybe try to get the media involved if you can!

[MimzMum]

Well, K&K, I understand your point, but we don’t want Tucker getting bitten by two big dogs trying to rescue them. That is a concern.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hehe yes for sure!

[Sage Cat]

I’m pretty sure it IS illegal to not supply shelter from the elements to animals.

I have called Animal Control & the Police on annoying dog owners before. In my experience the police recommend that you not approach the dog owner – it can cause a lo of tension – and sometimes worse – between neighbors.

Do call Animal Control & the Police again – and often – if that is what it takes to get them to act.

[Beka27]

oh geez. i hate stuff like this. keep us posted, are you going to contact them again?

[Alicia Conklin]

They called this morning (animal control) and talked to Mike.  I don’t know what is really going on though, I’m assuming they’re going to come out ..to the RIGHT house and check it out.  The dogs are still back there, still don’t see anyone really feeding them and still no shelter.  Luckily it hasn’t rained lately.  Hopefully animal control can get something straightened out before it does. 

 

And I don’t think there’s any TOWN laws saying you can’t have 5 dogs..there is a condo rule but it says 1 dog and 1 cat and noone really follows that.  Heck..we have two and two AND the bunnies..which..it doesn’t say either way.  The condos are owned though so noone really cares it’s more of a issue if they’re disruptive.  WHICH these dogs are.  They’re always out there barking because they’re cold and hungry and probably scared

[Beka27]

5 dogs is a lot. my sis in law has two large dogs (burmese mountain) and an itty bitty back yard (with a pool and a 2 car garage so there’re probably only about 10 feet of grass.) inside the house they are gated into the small dining room nearly 24/7 b/c they are “large and rambunctious”. i feel so bad for them, there’s literally nowhere for them to run and play. no wonder they get so excited when they do get to come into the rest of the house…

[Alicia Conklin]

It IS a lot.  My mom and dad have 5 dogs right now, although the 5th one was a rescue that they hadn’t planned on.  He was running around lost and they tried to find an owner but noone claimed him.  He was a little german shephard puppy..about maybe 6 mos old.  Around here dogs get dumped A LOT because it’s a marine town and when people get transferred most times they just dump their animals   It’s so sad.  The feral cat communities down here are unbelievable.  And of course hardly anyone bothers spaying or neutering so the issue just multiplies.  Ugh.  But, anyway so they have 5 dogs but they have a large fenced in yard and a pretty big house so there’s space for all of them. 

The guy next door has a teeny tiny back yard..NO running space and a pretty small condo.  His is not as deep as ours and it’s not as wide and it’s short a bedroom so I really don’t see how FIVE dogs would have any space there.  I’ve also heard that in the two bedroom condos the kitchens and living rooms are tiny.  So yea..I don’t get it. 

[MimzMum]

My guess is, this neighbor keeps a lot of dogs in a small place because he may be doing something illegal that he wants to keep people away from by using the dogs as a deterrent…unfortunately his behavior is going to draw more attention to him. Too many people count on the apathy of others to help hide their misdeeds.

I had five dogs at one time, and even on five acres that was too many dogs! (they were all family) I can’t imagine keeping five dogs in a condo! 0_o

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Mimz that’s a good call, could be drug house!

[Scarlet_Rose]

 

 

Hi Tuckerbunz! I just wanted to drop in and offer my 2 cetns, give the SPCA or local Humane Society a call rather than animal control.  From my experience, animal control provides little if any real help with these types of things as they don’t have the facilities for seized animals and rely on shelters for it which are usually already overcrowded.  A lot of times animal control is the SPCA but that is not always the case, so you may want to check first.  There is a process to this and a notice on the door is not out of the ordinary

Here are a few places I dug up on the internet:

http://www.animalshelter.org/shelters/Carolina_Animal_Protection_Society_rId3675_rS_pC.html

Humane Society
213 Maplehurst Dr
Jacksonville, NC 28540

(910) 455-9682‎

 

Here is a listing of shelters which may also be able to help you:

http://muttcats.com/shelters/north_carolina.htm

[BinkyBunny]

Depending on where you live, there are city laws about how many animals a person can have without a permit. Some cities in Northern California only allow 3 dogs. So you would have to check with your own city.

Also, if you find you receive no help from animal care and control. Take video and/or pictures (especially when it rains), and video them wnining and generally not being in the best situation.   This might help.   They should have a shelter, and access to water at all times and be fed regularly. Hopefully though the Humane Society will be more responsive.

Keep us updated!

[Author]

Messages