So Many Dogs Running Loose All Over Housing Estate

Fish Bloke

I live in the cul-de-sac of a housing estate. Within the estate there are at least 10 dogs, I actually think more, allowed to roam about unsupervised. Each dog is owned by a different person. Some are purebreeds, some are mixed breeds. Some are aggressive, and will go for pedestrians and chase cars. Others are boisterous and will chase after the kids out playing. Some of them cause a nuisance in terms of constant barking. ALL of them use the other residents lawns as their personal toilets.

I am sick and tired of the irresponsibilty of these dogs' owners. There are so many issues at hand here. The aggressive dogs could end up hurting someone. The car chasers will end up being killed or causing a serious accident. The poor dogs themselves might as well be strays, because no one is properly training and caring for them. God knows if any of them are even neutered.

I am sick to death of being chased, growled at and barked at when I walk my own dog on a leash. One of the dogs actually tried to take a bite out of mine a few weeks ago. I am tired of the other dogs coming into my garden and barking at my dog through the window and upsetting him. I'm sick of picking more of other dogs' crap up off my lawn than my own dog puts there.

If I call the dog warden and list all of the problem dogs in the estate, will I get anywhere?
Will he agree to visit all of the owners and have a word with them?
Or should I take this to the gardaí?

There are so many people here who need to be spoken to.
Will I be laughed at if I seek help or will I be taken seriously?

mymo

Its worth a try, I've had a similar situation and two dogs of my own. My dogs were attacked, luckily not hurt, by 4 dogs from the same house. I snapped and called the dog warden.
They must have followed up as 2 of the offending dogs are gone or locked up, as I haven't seen them since a few days after. I didn't give my name and told the warden I wouldn't as this family are dangerous.
There was also someone round checking licences twice since(about 3 months), so I would go for it. I really feel for you, you do the best you can to look after and train your dogs and can't even walk them in peace.
What have you got to lose?

Fish Bloke

Thanks mymo.

I posted earlier because I was particularly wound up. I had glanced out and see not one, but two dogs from different houses, crapping on my lawn at the same time. It's unreal.

I'm surprised things worked out so well for you and I'm glad for you. It's good to hear that I have a chance of being helped out when I call, which I'm going to do next week!

I'll have to dig up my licence now (which I do have) just in case!

TooManyDogs

I would call the warden too, we have 2 un-neutered male dogs allowed roam our area and they cause no end of trouble. Eventually the warden was called and he collected the dogs as they were out with no collars. The owners had to pay to get them back off the pound and made sure to keep them in... for a while. They're back roaming again, another call in order I think!

It's very frustrating for responsible dog owners when there's people who let their dogs out to cause chaos. I have 6 dogs and am blamed for every piece of dog poo in the area, despite the fact that I look like a bag lady coming home with all the poo bags! The neighbours figure it must be my dogs cause they see me with them, the roaming dogs never have owners with them so they can't be blamed, drives me nuts :mad:

morganafay

This is one of the things I really really hate. Luckily dogs don't often come into my garden at all, but any direction I walk my dogs there are dogs coming out onto the road and being aggressive to mine. Even if they're not aggressive it's bad, I was walking a puppy once and another puppy came out to play with her, I shooed the puppy back in but then a car came past and it ran straight under it and died. Another dog was snapping at my puppy and I crossed the road to get away and the dog followed me and got knocked down and had to be pts, and then I have to feel guilty for those dogs, when it was the owner's fault.

And a few dogs have come into my garden and been trying to get my kitten or my rabbits :mad: Though two of those were ones that were fenced in but escaped by accident, and I knew where they lived so I took them home, so that was fair enough.

morganafay

Oh and where I live there's a Rottie (not dissing Rotties, just mentioning it is a Rottie cos obviously they're big), and the owner is elderly and lives near the playground and just lets the dog wander. A few years ago when the dog was still really only a puppy, me and my friends used to play with him, and he was/is a lovely dog. But then one guy tried to take a stick off of him to throw it and he growled and snapped at him. Even afterwards he was being really aggressive to this one guy (but lovely to all the girls). So I really don't think it's safe to let him play in a children's playground if he's possessive. What if a kid tries to take a stick or a ball or a piece of food off of him and gets bitten.

lrushe

I've lost all faith in those organisations since yesterday. I wasn't home as I was at a communion but when I came home a neighbour was telling me that there was a mother dog in a garden across the road with 3 pups. The pups were dying in the heat as they were in the full glare of the sun and the mother had no water. The owner is not mentally sound so neighbours called the DSPCA and were told...wait for it...could they call back on Monday:eek: The police were called but never showed up:mad: Anyway by the time I heard all of this the pups had died:(
I can't believe this happened, I can't believe there was nobody (other than ordinary people) who tried to help, those poor pups, what a horrible way to die:(

Fish Bloke

lrushe wrote: »

I've lost all faith in those organisations since yesterday. I wasn't home as I was at a communion but when I came home a neighbour was telling me that there was a mother dog in a garden across the road with 3 pups. The pups were dying in the heat as they were in the full glare of the sun and the mother had no water. The owner is not mentally sound so neighbours called the DSPCA and were told...wait for it...could they call back on Monday:eek: The police were called but never showed up:mad: Anyway by the time I heard all of this the pups had died:(
I can't believe this happened, I can't believe there was nobody (other than ordinary people) who tried to help, those poor pups, what a horrible way to die:(

That's unreal. It's one of those things, you can't step in because you don't know if YOU might be blamed for causing problems. I can't believe the DSPCA reacted like that either.

I rang the KSPCA once because I saw a dog near me being beaten with sticks by some kids, then being hung from the gate by its leash. I didn't want to step myself in case I made some serious enemies - my dog sleeps outside at night and you never know that they wouldn't take their anger out on him.

Long story short, I was told to call back if it happened again. They just weren't interested. They'd better be this time. :mad:

padimus2

It's terrible to hear about the pups and it breaks my heart but the sad fact is that the rescue organisations don't have the resources to respond to every call they receive. The DSPCA or ISPCA has no more right to enter someone's back garden than a member of the public has and would have needed a Guard with them to go in a rescue the pups. If the guards didn't or couldn't come then the charities hands would be tied. The welfare orgainsations do a good job of helping what animals they can but they can't save every animal in distress.

Discodog

I have to agree with Irushe. The SPCA's seem to want to find a reason why they can't help. It is the same with prosecutions.

lrushe

padimus2 wrote: »

It's terrible to hear about the pups and it breaks my heart but the sad fact is that the rescue organisations don't have the resources to respond to every call they receive. The DSPCA or ISPCA has no more right to enter someone's back garden than a member of the public has and would have needed a Guard with them to go in a rescue the pups. If the guards didn't or couldn't come then the charities hands would be tied. The welfare orgainsations do a good job of helping what animals they can but they can't save every animal in distress.

I'm sorry but none of that is a good enough reason to leave 3 pups to effectively cook in the heat. If they had of turned up the Gardai would have been more likely to respond than by just a Joe Soap ringing them. Maybe I'm naive and way off the mark but if I took that call about the pups I would have walked bare foot over hot coals to help them, maybe I expect too much from the Animal Welfare organisations in this country or maybe its that exact indifferent attitude that makes people think that they can treat animals how they like with no repercussions