• The crisis worsens: What will be done? • Looking back The crisis worsens: What will be done? Many people write (to this column or to other sufferers) about their frustrations regarding barking dogs. Some of us may have attended
• The crisis worsens: What will be done? •
Looking back
The crisis worsens: What will be done?
Many people write (to this column or to other sufferers) about their frustrations regarding barking dogs. Some of us may have attended a “barking dog group” of those who suffer the impossible days and nights, or maybe even try to have conversations with neighbors or write thoughtful letters or notes to them in an attempt to have a dialogue about the problems with which we are faced.
A County Council member even attended one such group meeting but didn’t express much hope for any kind of successful barking dog ordinance (this is not a hunting dog issue, a local vs. mainlander problem, nor any kind of rural protection ideal, but simply a lapse in personal responsibility and egregious sound nuisance issue for which there is no recourse). However, this is not going to go away on its own and there does not appear any imminent solution to this extraordinary and angering problem.
How can we, collectively, as a community, deal with the out of control, barking dog dilemma that faces our entire island? As I write this (2:25 p.m.) a group of dogs have been barking in the distance for an hour, non-stop. Just today, while at Kaua‘i Medical Clinic for an appointment, the nurse asked “how are you doing?” and when I said not too well due to an incredibly difficult night (up four hours unable to sleep and for a solid two hours someone’s dog barked non-stop from 2 to 4 a.m., which then incited other dogs), she responded with empathy. “Oh, do you live in upper Kawaihau? My neighbors have dogs that bark all night too” she offered with obvious veiled frustration. Fortunately, my answer was no, but unfortunately Wailua Homestead is just as full of many disrespectful neighbors and Kaua‘i residents. Every area of the island has reported some frustration with this ongoing situation at some point in this column.
We live in a society where there is are systems, a process, a tax, a fine or levy, a written rule or often unwritten ones, but we must respect all of these as part of a civilized community. We must license our animals, our cars, our bikes, register our documents, renew them or keep systems up to snuff (e.g. auto safety checks, repairs & maintenance), and we must pay our fair share and our dues (marriage license, death taxes, garbage levy on our property tax bill, KIUC charges, the gas in our cars, to name a few) or there is a consequence. If one decides to have a loud party way past the hour of decency or anything gets out of hand police may be called, people may be sent home, and you may be told to respect your neighbors rights, sound ordinances, etc. However, chain or cage your dog(s) as so many islanders do, where these poor animals mature and develop with almost no human interaction and they develop unbelievably anti-social habits and unchecked behavior for which there is absolutely no consequence to the disrespectful and irresponsible owners. Everyone suffers.
How can this continue, day after day, night after night, making some people feel prisoners in their own homes? We actually have a neighbor who so disrespects every single person on the street (which also is home to KPD officers and their families as well as this neighbors’ family’s children who grew up with other neighbors) send me a written letter that says, verbatim “… you need to find other means to have your peace and quiet time.” This was a written letter in response to asking her to please take responsibility for her incessantly barking dogs caged at the end of the driveway. This is where they live, eat, defecate, and spend most of their lives. This is also from where they bark and howl at everything that moves on our street; the other neighbors, the postal service driver, the gardener, the propane delivery truck, the mom with stroller, and even the next door neighbor when they simply walk to get their paper or come home late from work.
The trades are blowing, carrying with it graceful palm tree fronds in the breeze, cooling air, swaying and bending branches of many trees, the scent of plumeria and pua kenikeni, and the incessant noise of someone’s untrained and ignored barking dog. At some point, there is a gust or a strong Kona wind and some branches will snap (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction — Newton’s laws). It is only a matter of time before that “snapping” sound is heard all over our beautiful island. It’s in the air and the smell of discontent is festering in the night.
Something has to be done, before human nature shows its ugly side. After all, we are all creatures of habit and bad habits are very hard to break, but nothing is impossible. Another dog has started barking.
Jeff Demma, Wailua
Looking back
Unbelievable. It was 1944 when I married a young lady from Waimea.
We were married in City Hall over in Honolulu. My friend Willie McClellan was our witness.
The judge came out to perform the ceremony which took about three minutes. He was a tall man about sixty years old, and looked very dignified. He was 100 percent Caucasian. Well he rattled off the few words, and said to me, “Now that I did something for you, would you like to do something for me?” So I looked at Willie, and gave the honorable judge a two dollar tip. He said, “Thank you.”
Now that’s what I call class.
William Pedoty, New York
