COM 0022.052 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March ao, aoos HAWAII COUNTY COLkQCIL `iCj ~ a5 Aupuni St. Hilo, Hawaii 96720 llear l.ounty Council iviettiners. We are against Bi114, Dr~1ft 5 relating to Animal Control. There aze many things that need to be addressed before passing lsuch a bill. People need to address barking dogs within their own community and community/subdivision associations. Properties 19~>ught with covenant codes protect buyers from having to deal with crowing roosters, barking dogs and other problems. NO ONE addresses CATS and that is a BIG PKOBLEM for us as dog;owners of this cotmty. CATS aze allowed to run free, and there is no leash laws for cats. Them is nothing worse than waking up to hear cats fighting in the Huddle of the night or listening to tbm cats call in their mates. Our neighbor's cat nms on our stone wall enticing our dogs to bazk; and also poops in our yazd and in ow bonsai plants that causes our plants to die. There are giany cats left loose only to be seen flattened on the roads. How fair is rhat to animals? Dogs were meant to bazlq and there aze your first warning sign that someone is around your property that shouldn't b~ there. In this day of rising burglary rates, a dog(s) keeps people from coming on to your property that have no business being there. Our dogs are our burglaz alarms. We need them to bark whenever strangers park in front of our house on the county road and drinY, at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. We would not know they were out there if our dogs didn't bark. These drinkers brk bottles on the county road and leave their trash for us to clean up. People walk down ours eet at 4:00 a.m. and the dogs bark to alert us that someone is walking around at that hour. Wi the dogs; we feel safe. They give us an eazly warning sign that something isn't right. We think there aze more important things that the County Council needs to address at this time. Such as the traffic problems within the town of Waimea and 1Cailua-Kona. Lust because a few people complain about t~teir neighbors dogs doesn't give the County Council the right to change the law to benefit these ~'ew individuals. Perhaps the Community Associations in these communities with the b~.tldng dogs can address the problems, or the Community Police Officer can meet with the peopll}' involved (the complainant, and the owner of the dogs) to work out an agreement. Raising fees to bail out dugs at the Humane Society will only make the Humane Society's job harder and end up having to put more animals to sleep. Many people would not bail their dogs out if the fees are too high, perhaps breaking hearts of their children who love the dogs. People like that would probably just get another dog instead of paying to bail out the older one. More Comm. No. ZZ-. st. Ref. To: Ref, Uat~