• Council must take action on barking dogs • Companies wrong to file lawsuit • You got the fight you wanted Council must take action on barking dogs We are grateful that the county council is considering an ordinance to
• Council must take action on barking dogs • Companies wrong to file lawsuit • You got the fight you wanted
Council must take action on barking dogs
We are grateful that the county council is considering an ordinance to deal with barking dogs.
This is an issue that has long needed to be addressed. If a bunch of rowdy teenage kids have a party and play their music too loudly at night – they can be cited for disturbing the peace. If the muffler on a truck is broken or a car stereo turned up to the point that the houses nearby vibrate — the driver can be cited. But if a dog barks all night, keeping everyone in the surrounding neighborhood awake, nothing can be done. If that dog continues to bark night after night to the point where the neighbors are tearing out their hair and thinking violent thoughts about the owner — there is still nothing that can legally be done.
Most dog owners are considerate. They pick up after their dog on the bike path and quiet their dog if they bark at night. But a small minority of dog owners have absolutely no respect or concern for their neighbors and allow their dogs to bark unceasingly.
Dogs generally bark for a reason: hunger, discomfort, someone on the property they don’t know and sometimes just plain boredom. If a dog barks for eight hours straight, every night, chances are it is not barking at a burglar.
Dear county council, please give us a strong useful tool to deal responsibly with those few irresponsible dog owners.
Bill and Sea Peterson, Kapaa
Companies wrong to file lawsuit
Compliance with Kauai’s pesticide regulation law would have been a way for Pioneer et al to show that they could have been good neighbors. After all, being part of a community requires compromise.
Instead, they are telling us that the county, parents and schools cannot legally protect our children and families from restricted use pesticides and have threatened us with legal and financial retribution if we have the temerity to do so. What bullies!
John Patt, Koloa
You got the fight you wanted
Shame on you Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum. From the beginning, you wanted a fight. Well, you’ve got what you wanted and you know that our families and neighbors will suffer for it. The net result is an absolute waste of time, energy, money, emotion and aloha.
From the first anti-GMO legislation proposed, Gary Hooser wanted a fight. That first iteration of Act 960 (Bill 2491) was laughably unconstitutional and unenforceable. It was like throwing down a nailed gauntlet, challenging our sensibilities. It was successful in its intent to inflame the emotions of all of us. That’s a basic tactic of socialism, to incite an emotional response.
After months of rational analysis of this outrageously flawed legislation, it finally boiled down to the enacted law, still legally indefensible. Some of our council members recognized the legal ramifications, and managed to limit its obvious illegality. The common sense of Mayor Carvalho, and the county attorney’s opinion that this law was unfair, unenforceable and a total waste of government resources drew his veto. Mayor Carvalho knew what each council member knew, that passing this law would result in a losing fight. Council members Yukimura, Furfaro, and finally Chock succumbed to opinion and signed onto this fight, overriding Mayor Carvalho’s veto. What is so painful is that each of these elected officials knew, or should have known, that it is inherently wrong and legally indefensible. They knew a fight was the only possible outcome and harmony would be unattainable into the foreseeable future.
During the months of debate, Hooser kept his three pit bull attorneys straining at their chains. They knew a legal fight was coming because Hooser and Bynum planned for it. Shame on the five council members that have facilitated outside interests, making our Garden Island a battlefield. Initiated by outside interests, this choice to fight is not the grassroots Kauai I’m familiar with. I’m ashamed of how easily our council was duped into this exercise in futility.
Michael Curtis, Koloa
