Dog barking proposal ready

LIHUE — A new dog barking proposal is headed to the County Council.

The draft, introduced by Councilman KipuKai Kuali’i, mirrors the previous ordinance that was repealed in August, but this time around, more complainants would be needed on the same dog owner before a ticket could be issued.

Already, the draft has its supporters as well as at least one councilman questioning whether it can be effective.

“We’re going to have to work with it and see if it will be modified,” said Penny Cistaro, Kauai Humane Society executive director.

One thing she said will be important this time around, is if the new proposal gets adopted and it’s discovered tweaks are needed, they should be done while it’s still on the books and not repealed again to work on it.

Kuali’i shared a draft of the ordinance this week but was unavailable for comment Friday. He told TGI last week it was important to address the issue after it was repealed.

One of the key differences between Kuali’i’s proposal and the one that was repealed Aug. 5 by a 4-3 vote, is the number of people and households required to initiate a citation.

Under the old rule, only one person needed to complain about an excessively loud dog to warrant a ticket. The new rule could require at least two people from two different households in the area to file the complaint.

Council Vice Chair Ross Kagawa, who led the repeal, said he’s unsure if the new proposal is much better than the old one. Namely, he said, dog barking can be a problem late at night, when KHS officers won’t be working to respond to calls. It would be better if the police department were involved in the enforcement process, because a police citation would likely hold up in court.

Of the 17 citations issued when the old rule was on the books for roughly two years, none of the five that went to court held up, he said.

“If we can’t win a law in court, what does that tell you about law,” he said. “It means the law is worthless.”

As for getting the dog barking ordinance back on the books, he said Friday it was never a top priority for him. While he said at the time of the appeal that he’d be willing to consider a new one, it didn’t mean it was a top priority for him.

“A dog barking bill has never been important for me, seriously,” he said, classifying a majority of them as “neighborly squabbles” that shouldn’t be regulated in rural Kauai. “I thought that’s not something that can be done feasibly.”

A first time offense would be $35. A first offense means there hasn’t been a conviction in the last 90 days. A second offense would be $75. A third offense would be between $100 and $300, if they occur within 90 days.

Those are the same figures as the last rule, Cistaro pointed out, but higher totals were given during the public repeal meetings because the council was working off the wrong draft at times.

She declined to comment on Kagawa’s opinion that a citation would hold up in court better coming from the police. She did say that neither police or KHS would rush to a house for a barking dog in the middle of the night and that the enforcement policy being led by KHS during regular operating hours was sound.

“We don’t have the staffing levels,” she said about responding to late night calls. “And neither does the Kauai Police Department.”

A barking dog is defined as one that barks, bays, cries or howls intermittently for a period of 30 minutes within a 45-minute period, or if it’s continuous or incessant for a period of 15 minutes. That’s similar to the last one. A dog, however, can’t be provoked to bark to count.

When it goes to the council Nov. 4 it will be for first reading. A public hearing would be scheduled some time after that. A committee would also have a chance to work on the bill before it could get to the full council for final reading.