Too many residents have endured too many sleepless nights due to their neighbors’ negligence in keeping their canine companions quiet. Kaua‘i is a dog-loving community, but pet owners must start taking more responsibility and showing more aloha to those around
Too many residents have endured too many sleepless nights due to their neighbors’ negligence in keeping their canine companions quiet.
Kaua‘i is a dog-loving community, but pet owners must start taking more responsibility and showing more aloha to those around them. This is not an attack against our furry friends, rather a call for their masters to step it up in the respect department.
The incessant barking has sadly been allowed to rise to the point of prompting some residents to move and others to self-medicate.
Other people feel stuck due to the added difficulty in selling their house given disclosure laws. Selling your home in this market is hard enough. Add the disclosure of several non-stop barking dogs next door and you have a homeowner trapped in a bad dream.
A woman in Puhi, for instance, has been popping anxiety pills for years to deal with the issue.
A lady in Lawa‘i, for example, has gone to bed every night for the past 10 years with her TV on at full volume to drown out the dogs next door.
Others are routinely awakened by the racket, sometimes hours before they had planned on getting up. Starting your morning off on the wrong foot like this has a way of affecting not just you but everyone you encounter throughout your day. You have a shorter fuse, think less clearly, work less productively.
We all have a stake in rectifying this downward-spiraling situation. This is not about dogs just being dogs.
In many cases, the solution can be as simple as better communication. Some pet owners may be unaware that their dogs are barking all day while they are gone. A quick conversation alerting them to the issue may fix it right then and there.
Solutions exist. There are different types of collars and other methods that teach dogs not to constantly bark.
Unfortunately, in other cases, the pet owner may be unreachable. For these instances, the county needs a dog-nuisance law with teeth in it that authorities can use as a tool to address the problem.
We urge the Kaua‘i County Council and Carvalho Administration to promptly produce this long overdue legislation.
The county’s last real effort to tackle this issue was in 2002. What seems to have killed that bill, at least in part, was a ludicrous argument that barking dogs was part of the island’s rural character.
Dogs are indeed rightfully a part of the culture here. But a definite distinction must be made between a fondness for our four-legged friends and being an irresponsible owner who lets them dominate the neighborhood.
The flood of feedback to Monday’s article in The Garden Island clearly attests that community members are fed up with disrespectful pet owners allowing their dogs to severely disrupt their lives on Kaua‘i.
This is a problem that has — as some residents put it — reached “epidemic” proportions. But it is a problem that we can solve.
Pet owners must take the necessary mitigative measures to end their dogs’ excessive barking. At the same time, the county should create laws for those who fail to meet our island’s basic standard of living.
This is a real issue affecting the quality of life for too many people. The law is required for those who simply aren’t interested in extending aloha to their dogs or their neighbors.
A good night’s sleep shouldn’t be too much to ask.
