COM 0022.039 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Germano, Loren From: Normand Dionne UHH ACS [ndionne@hawaii.edu] Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 11:36 AM To: Safarik, Gary Subject: "animal control bill" Gary, This is Norm of UHH/HGEA. There has been quite a bit of open discussion of this upcoming bill with the County at UH Hilo among the faculty and staff and so far I see people in two camps. There are those, which I oppose, who want to force dog owners to keep all dogs as inside pets citing the noise of outside dogs is "unbearable". One man in particular at UHH complained mostly of losing sleep. While I empathize with him, what my own doctor has told me was to stop blaming barking dogs and realize that as we all get older, we have trouble sleeping, with or without dogs. So what I did was put a fan in my bedroom window to drown out the noise. It does a fine job of drowning out the noise of the kokee frogs too! I also stated to the UH Hilo Ohana that dogs in Hawaii are used to lower property crime. I was once told by an HPD police dispatcher that statistics show that you have an 85% less chance of being burglarized if even all you have is a small dog. One retired faculty member cited too that in rural areas in particular, that safety is an issue that she had a dog in her yard just to feel safer at home. She is a resident of Volcano. What I am concerned about mostly however, is that should the County enact a law that is TOO restrictive, that does not take into account that dogs are used for hunting, often kept outdoors and do provide security as well as family companionship, that is will be just one more way one neighbor will be pitted against another. I live on the Hilo side of Aweoweo Street and I have to put up with barking dogs, clucking chickens, crowing roosters, braying goats, kokee frogs, hissing cats in heat, and even very loud talking birds. (One such bird at my neighbor's home used to bark like a dog then tell itself to "shut up!!". I thought that has hilarious. With all this, I decided that when I moved to the Big Island that I would leave myhigh-pressured, mainland ways back on the mainland and simply try to have good relationships with my new neighbors. So far this has worked quite well. Most of my Aweoweo Street neighbors have dogs just as my family does. My dog's only "job" is to be there with my 90 pound retired mother, who is home without another person, all day long. Our family dog is also an outside dog, kept on a 180 foot long runner. On two occasions recently, two guys is a pickup truck drove up in our driveway stating they "had the wrong street". They did this twice in two weeks. I am glad my tiny mother had our dog with her at these times. So while I empathize with those who have trouble sleeping because barking dogs, I would ask them to consider all of things mentioned and perhaps install a fan in their bedroom window, rather than call our already short-staffed police force to deal with this issue. Which also brings up the extra cost of enforcement! Note I FULLY support any measure that would hold the owner of a dangerous dog, that is one who has attacked either people of any age, or other people's livestock, fully accountable. I even support a lease law for dogs. I am available to testify in person if you wish. Mahalo, ~o~,,,,. No:. 22.3q Normand Dionne Ref. 70: '.f. Ua?e