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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0022.055 2004-2006 AOH3224flNAn SOH DHO KUNA 1711 73pm ~~311 'hin~, C~~J ~ii~i' ~,I,1 •7 r-r. r rc. 1. , . , 03/20/05 Couttty Counse) Hilo, Hawaii RE: Proposed changes to Section 424, 25, 26, 27, and 28 regarding "Noisy Dogs". I am writing to address the issue of dogs. The proposal I read basically is a ban on dogs and the legal right of others to dispose of a dog simply because the dog is doing exactly what a dog is supposed to do -communicate. One wonders what possessed someone to make such a proposal. A dog is bazking in the night. The barking bothers a neighbor. So, laws are enacted to "do away" with this nuisance. How are you to enforce this? Can anyone complain and have a dog silenced, removed or slain? How do you know which dog to silence or which dog owner to fine? In cities where noise ordinances have been passed 1 can see where this would become an issue but in rural communities, how can you ask a property owner to give up rights they have earned. The constitution affords everyone the tight to own property and unless that property is being used for illegal purposes, no one should have the right to interfere. [ have a dog. My dog lives with me and does what a dog is supposed to do. He barks when someone or something is on my property. He lets me know if someone is here. What is so wrong about that? I live in a rural community that is zoned for agriculture. I do not have some of the luxuries that people who live in the city have. I have no running water; I live on catchment. I have no paved streets except for the one-lane road that property owners pay to maintain. I have no fire hydrants or streetlights. I had no electricity until I paid for the poles to run the electric lines. I do not have police officers to patrol my area and keep my person and property safe. I live in an azea where wild pigs, chickens, pheasants and turkeys roam. (Doesn't look like I'm getting my monies worth in the property tax department, does it?) The pigs are the annnels I want to address. They come down from the mountain and ravage our farms. They uproot coffee trees, vegetable gardens and fruit trees. They move rocks and boulders we have used to make water diversions on our land to help ease flooding. And, when provoked, they will attack other animals and even people. Our dogs help us witlh these pigs. When they come down at night, the dog barking will keep the pigs away. ]:f the pigs venture on the property, our dogs will at least chase them away Until recentiy I had three dogs that would do this but they passed on due to old age and illness. Since then, new coffee trees that we planted have been destroyed. Water diversions we built have been knocked down. Grass we have grown to help keep what precious little topsoil we have is rooted out. What are we supposed to do about this Who can we tum to for help? We keep dogs not only for their companionship but also Cornet. No. Z Z. S S Ref. To: r ~ 1 Ref. Uate 80N37?4NNN6 SVH DHU KONA ll iJ_ 0`~ p ni 03 77 Jill ~t: 3 for their usefulness and you want us to give that all up? Are you going to patrol our roads at night and keep our property safe? We use and need dogs and unlike people like you, apparently we actually care what happens to them. I have a neighbor who shined a spotlight on my daughter and me one night as we walked home from my mother's house. He yelled at me and told me to "keep that damned dog quiet". I asked him what dog he was talking about and he told me "that dog of yours that is barking" Of course I was confused as I had no dog with me and my sister's dog was so old that he could barely walk much less bark. I asked him if he was talking about the bazking dog I could heaz. He angrily accused me of playing dumb end said `des, that dog of yours". Then I asked him if he meant the dog that was barking at my neighbor's house on the hill. He immediately moved his spotlight to my neighbor's house and saw the dog that was barking, N'o apology was given to me. No "I'm sorry" for the hazsh words and obscenities that were hurled at my young daughter and me - just a grurrt, the immediate turning off of the spotlight and the angry steps he made as he left his porch. So my question is, how do you know which dog to fine? In the valley where we live, sound travels in many directions, how do you know where the sound came from e~cacth~ Do you fine every dog owner in the neighborhood? One dog barking will alert other dogs in the area and they will bark too. Do you fine all the owners or kill all the dogs? How much weight do you give a caller who is complaining about a dog? There may be no barking dog at all; it could be just retaliation from an angry neighbor. What about dogs that are trying to protect us? People come onto my property all the time- I even had a police officer drive through my coffee land looking for someone's house. He thought he was using an access road instead of my yard. I would have thought that the Private Property - No Trespassing signs would have been a hint. My dogs bazked and raised a :lot of ruckus. I had one person who told me that I should have my dogs chained so they wouldn't hurt anyone. This was while this person is walking down my driveway and through my Yazd to get to the road below. He didn't fee( he was trespassing, he said he was `Making a short cut" and that I shouldn't mind because he wasn't hurting anything. Of cowse if he had tripped or fallen on my property and hurt himself, I would have been liable even if he was trespassing. I know this because I asked a police officer and hie told me that. We have a Bed and I3reakfast next to us. One day, a few years ago, I was picking coffee and my dogs started barking [walked out to my driveway to see what the fuss was all about and saw people surrounding my catchment water tank. One man was on the stepladder we keep next to the tank to check the water level. He was trying to remove the tank cover. I asked trim what he was doing and he said that he and his family were going "swimming in the pool". I was enraged and told him that this was not a pool it was our source for water. He actually got mad at me for being angry. We used to lease 10 acres of land for wffee production. One day while we were clearing a portion of bamboo, my husband and I came across a clearing inside the bamboo field. It was nicely cultivated and growing beautifully were eight marijuana plants. ] immediately went to I:he police station to report this and the officer accompanied us back 80fl3224RflAb SUH DHU KONA 1? 12 46 p m UJ 21 )nq~. q ; to the field. He trudged through the brush and saw the marijuana and told us to just get rid of it, because the narcotics officers would not be concerned with this small an amount of plants. I had It~inl do the plant pulling and asked him what we can do to prevent this in the future. He told us that there is basically nothing we can do. I asked him what would happen if the authorities had found these plants instead of cis and he said that we, as the property owners, would have probably been arrested and chazged with growing marijuana. 50, it appears that the laws aze here to protect the criminals and not the innocent. What you are saying is that anyone can come on to my property, do something illegal without my knowledge and I am responsible. I have W bear the cost of legal counsel to go to court and find myself innocent? And you ask us why we have a barking dog? Yes we have a dog. He protects our property and gives us many hours of happiness and enjoyment. He bads and does what he is supposed to do. How can you stop him from doing that? Why would you want to, because someone complained? People complain about all sorts of things. People drive with their windows down and play loud music on the radio -someone: hates that so let's make a law against anyone who plays loud music. People talk on cell phones while driving -someone hates that so let's make a law against anyone who talks on a cell phone while driving. Your apartment neighbor has a new baby that cries "all the time" -you hate that so let's make a taw against crying babies. When will it all end? Do we have the police officers to enforce all of this? The police seem to have a problem enforcing the laws we have now. Maybe we shouldn't: be so quick to condemn unless we want to condemn all of us. We have all done things we maybe shouldn't have done and annoyed someone we shouldn't have but does that nnean we should be condemned as dogs!!! Are we doing this to help our neighbor? We have laws to protect the mistreatment of animals and now you want to create a law to circumvent that. 1 recently saved three dogs from mistreatment. I thought this would be great and that these dogs would help us with our problem with wild pigs. As always, I sent in a check to have my dogs sprryed and to get dog tags for them, as this is the responsible thing to do. Before I could lhave this done, my dogs mysteriously disappeazed one-by-one. Do I have proof of who did it - no? Will the police help me - no7 Do I think my angry neighbor, who also has a barking dog, had a hand in this -yes? Can I prove it - no? Is any dog safe - I doubt it? And now you want to make sure that no dog is safe. You want to make it all right fi>r anyone to claim a "noisy dog" without proof You are willing to trust hearsay rather than fact. In the meantime I am stuck with coupons for spaying and coupons that I can't use. Should I get another dog, hell no if you're going to fine me or kill it!!! All of this because someone complained, well isn't man just full of himself Because we have a brain that can process we aze superior - I doubt that? The saying is that dog is God spelled backwards. Well maybe you should all consider this too, in the great scheme of things, man was an after-thought, he was created last. 80A322488d6 SOH DHU KONA 12 13 21 p m 03 21 7005 S " Please respond to my concerns as I have little faith that any of this will actually be considered but I would tike acknowledgement that it was at least read. After all, I would hate to have the public think that `you guys" don't care about public opinion. BEATRICE VAN VVXNGARDEN PO BOX 2506 KEALAKEKUA, H[ 96750 328-8085 (H) 321-4880 (W)