Dogs and Neighbours

I carried a watermelon

fend wrote: »

Update:

Just back from the Vet with my parents cocker spaniel. Shes been posioned with Rat posion. Pretty Bad. There is no posion kept on our property whatsoever. and the dogs cannot leave our garden.

Do the maths...

Vet says to go to the Guards but It s very hard to do something with no proof.

That's crazy, poor dog.
You have to report it to the guards now. Also be careful of any young children who may be in and around your garden, they could easily pick up or eat the poison as well.

Cuddlesworth

fend wrote: »

Vet says to go to the Guards but It s very hard to do something with no proof.

You should have gone to the Guards when you first heard the threats. The first reply in this thread said as much.

As it is, go to them right now and file a statement. If your local station is nice, they will stop by his house and have a chat with him. Odds are that will stop him doing anything else in future, or if you pet gets poisoned again, the blame will rest squarely on him.

Lemming

fend wrote: »

Vet says to go to the Guards but It s very hard to do something with no proof.

If you don't do something, you'll always ask could you have done more if something does happen to the dogs. They clearly matter to you and your parents, so why are you rationalising sitting on your hands with buts & ifs? Report the matter. The Gardai don't necessarily need to catch someone in the act to be effective; their presence at the door for a chat inquiring after having spotted anyone in the area laying rat poison could be enough to deter.

whippet

dude .. at this stage it is now beyond neighbours and tip toeing around the issue.

Personally I know what I would do; I can't condone illegal behaviour on this site but I would treat the attempted poisoning of my dog on the par with the attempted poisoning of my child and I would probably make it impossible for my neighbour to remain in their house or live comfortably there ever again.

Cuddlesworth

whippet wrote: »

dude .. at this stage it is now beyond neighbours and tip toeing around the issue.

Personally I know what I would do; I can't condone illegal behaviour on this site but I would treat the attempted poisoning of my dog on the par with the attempted poisoning of my child and I would probably make it impossible for my neighbour to remain in their house or live comfortably there ever again.

And then you end up with the Guards on your doorstep, with the police reports against you made and anything you say from that point onward becomes the ranting of a mad man.

whippet

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

And then you end up with the Guards on your doorstep, with the police reports against you made and anything you say from that point onward becomes the ranting of a mad man.

i'm sorry but the reality is the guy will not see any justice from the guards as something like this is nearly impossible to prove.

Sometimes the socially acceptable way of dealing with something isn't the best.....

The_Conductor

Warning- no advocating of illegal activity of any sort.......

Regards

The_Conductor

Cuddlesworth

Escalation is a horrible thing and I would never recommend that path to anybody. It does exactly what it says on the tin, escalate.

Doop

Thats horrific, sorry to hear it op.

Dogs are a way of life in the country, and what he has most likely done is appalling. An initial complaint to the gaurds before the poising would have been beneficial, but go straight to them now, you do not need to have proof before you go. Would you report a burglary to your house without proof of who did it?

You might also consider a couple of cctv cameras, they are very small an unobtrusive these days, also inexpensive. One or two pointed at the adjoing fence. Although might be hard to see if something gets thrown over at night.

Let us know what the gaurds say.

reach for the stars

I have been on the other side of this conversation .Its not funny being woken at 5 in the morning with dogs barking .If people have dogs barking it is up to them to remedy the situation,, it is their dog that is causing the disturbance.If the neighbour in the original post is reacting angrily well i can tell you from experience that lack of sleep will do this to a person.There are people on here acting as if the neighbour is the problem ,he isnt .The selfish people with the uncontrolled dog are the problem.

mikom

fend wrote: »

As home owners, they believe they have the right to let the dogs run and bark all they want.

As a home owner could I let my son out into the garden to shout all he wants?
Could I rev my Harley all I want?

OldNotWIse

reach for the stars wrote: »

I have been on the other side of this conversation .Its not funny being woken at 5 in the morning with dogs barking .If people have dogs barking it is up to them to remedy the situation,, it is their dog that is causing the disturbance.If the neighbour in the original post is reacting angrily well i can tell you from experience that lack of sleep will do this to a person.There are people on here acting as if the neighbour is the problem ,he isnt .The selfish people with the uncontrolled dog are the problem.

Yes. Poisoning a dog and risking poisoning children who may be playing in the garden is completely justified if you haven't had enough sleep.

reach for the stars

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Yes. Poisoning a dog and risking poisoning children who may be playing in the garden is completely justified if you haven't had enough sleep.

And now you are going to show me where i mentioned any of the above .In the original post the angry neighbour is not angry for the sake of it ,its obvious the dogs are driving him mad but the op only interest is in what to do about the neighbour not what she can do to remedy her barking dogs which are causing the friction in the first place.

handlemaster

Barking dogs are annoying even to owners but they put up with it because its their dog. Had a neighbour with a dog that barked a lot a German Sheppard. I used to think that well he has a passion and was into dogs so never mentioned it. Then I noticed he had his house up for rent with Pets/Dogs welcome !! Nice to be so considerate to the neighbours I thought.

OldNotWIse

reach for the stars wrote: »

And now you are going to show me where i mentioned any of the above .In the original post the angry neighbour is not angry for the sake of it ,its obvious the dogs are driving him mad but the op only interest is in what to do about the neighbour not what she can do to remedy her barking dogs which are causing the friction in the first place.

Am I?

How about the part where you said the neighbour is not the problem? You dont think poisoning is a problem? Or did you miss/ignore that part?

The_Conductor

Guys- refute each others posts factually. If you disagree with what someone posts- refute their post- without attacking the poster. Remain civil towards one another. Regards, The_Conductor.

reach for the stars

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Am I?

How about the part where you said the neighbour is not the problem? You dont think poisoning is a problem? Or did you miss/ignore that part?

I suggest you start at post one and you might figure out what i am commenting on instead of making ludicrous assumptions of your own.I have never mentioned or condoned poisoning anything which is obvious also to you when you are backtracking trying to nitpick a word here or a phrase there .Why dont you just admit that you didnt read the thread fully and apologise for trying to associate me with comments i had not made.

Lambofdave

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Am I?

How about the part where you said the neighbour is not the problem? You dont think poisoning is a problem? Or did you miss/ignore that part?

Has the OP any physical proof the neighbour poisoned the dogs, we also don't have the other persons side of the story and while some on here are going all mad to apportion blame on either side, the one thing that the OP hasn't done is go to the neighbour and ask them why he made the "threat" or what the problem is.
How friendly were the OP parents and the neighbour before.

The only way to come to a solution is to talk it out, and remember putting two and two together or how ever suspicious something seems you need proof. So sending the Guards to the door with a belief is hardly going to smooth the discord.

maggiepip

Lambofdave wrote: »

Has the OP any physical proof the neighbour poisoned the dogs, we also don't have the other persons side of the story and while some on here are going all mad to apportion blame on either side, the one thing that the OP hasn't done is go to the neighbour and ask them why he made the "threat" or what the problem is.
How friendly were the OP parents and the neighbour before.

The only way to come to a solution is to talk it out, and remember putting two and two together or how ever suspicious something seems you need proof. So sending the Guards to the door with a belief is hardly going to smooth the discord.

For goodness sake how can anyone get "physical proof" of a neighbour poisoning your dog!!!! The OP overhead the neighbour shouting violent threats to the dogs on a couple of occasions, the dogs didnt leave the garden. One dog was poisoned.

You imply the OP should have gone to the neighbour to discuss these overheard mad violent threats?? How about the crazy neighbour should have approached the OP to discuss whatever problem he has with the dogs and not go around the place shouting vile threats.

You'll never get black and white proof but its pretty obvious whats happened here and it should be turned over the the Garda. This is serious behaviour, much more serious than merely trying to "smooth the discord".

How is the dog OP?

OldNotWIse

OP, how is your dog? (for those of us more interested in the welfare of the animal than point scoring). Also, what kind of veterinary bills did you face? I often thought about having a supply of activated charcoal on hand (some of the animal first aid kits have them) in case of events such as these, where time is so valuable! Anyway hope recovery going well. Some people just beggar belief.:(

djimi

maggiepip wrote: »

For goodness sake how can anyone get "physical proof" of a neighbour poisoning your dog!!!! The OP overhead the neighbour shouting violent threats to the dogs on a couple of occasions, the dogs didnt leave the garden. One dog was poisoned.
.
.
.
You'll never get black and white proof but its pretty obvious whats happened here and it should be turned over the the Garda. This is serious behaviour, much more serious than merely trying to "smooth the discord".

CCTV? If the dog never leaves the garden then its safe to assume that whoever planted the poison must have come into the garden. If the OP hasnt set up cameras by now then I would strongly advise them to do so immediately.

maggiepip

djimi wrote: »

CCTV? If the dog never leaves the garden then its safe to assume that whoever planted the poison must have come into the garden. If the OP hasnt set up cameras by now then I would strongly advise them to do so immediately.

I was basing my previous post on the fact that now the deed is done you'll never get physical proof. But yeah for the future cctv would give proof if every inch of the garden was covered by camera. How horrible to have someone like that living beside you. A visit from the Gardai would give the neighbour something to think about and hopefully a bit of a shock.

Edit to add: he could also just throw the poison over.

Lambofdave

maggiepip wrote: »

For goodness sake how can anyone get "physical proof" of a neighbour poisoning your dog!!!! The OP overhead the neighbour shouting violent threats to the dogs on a couple of occasions, the dogs didnt leave the garden. One dog was poisoned.

You imply the OP should have gone to the neighbour to discuss these overheard mad violent threats?? How about the crazy neighbour should have approached the OP to discuss whatever problem he has with the dogs and not go around the place shouting vile threats.

You'll never get black and white proof but its pretty obvious whats happened here and it should be turned over the the Garda. This is serious behavior, much more serious than merely trying to "smooth the discord".

How is the dog OP?

Assumption is the mother of all f**kups.

But doing nothing has got a dog poisoned, ever hear of the burden of proof? Also if the dog can't get out then the poisoning must have happened on the dog home patch.

OldNotWIse

Lambofdave wrote: »

Assumption is the mother of all f**kups.

But doing nothing has got a dog poisoned, ever hear of the burden of proof? Also if the dog can't get out then the poisoning must have happened on the dog home patch.

Yes and in civil cases its based on the balance of probabilities.The "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard, applies to criminal cases, so perhaps OP should initiate criminal proceedings against the neighbour...

Stepping Stone

Is it not possible that a poisoned rat died in the property and was eaten by the dog? You couldn't prove that it didn't happen, you know?

Something struck me about all of this. I am in no way defending anyone who hatms animals but the OP claimd initially that the dogs didn't bark much, then daid that as homeowners, his parents feel that they have a right to allow their dogs to bark as much as they want. These dogs never leave the property, so I would imagine that they are not walked, stimulated and worn out resulting, possibly in boredom barking.

The neighbour is by the OP's account crazy but I wonder if this is due to the incessant barking of dogs? Also, if they are outside, poisoned rats are not uncommon but neither are slightly more distant neighbours who have no qualms about shutting up annoying dogs.

pwurple

Very sad the dog was poisoned. Especailly that the guy with a problem never even spoke to the owner of the dogs. Marks him out as a crazy indeed.

I have been on the other side of the fence. Two german shepards kept in a suburban garden who barked all the live long day while the owner was away, plus a good portion of the night. Poor things were bored to the point of insanity. Never walked. Several of the neighbours had a huge problem with them, and I had to persuade one of them out of poisoned meat in over the fence, as these people also had children living in the house.

We just moved house eventually.

Barking drives people to extreme behaviour.

the_syco

Stepping Stone wrote: »

Is it not possible that a poisoned rat died in the property and was eaten by the dog? You couldn't prove that it didn't happen, you know?

Most rat poison takes about 12 hours to kill the rat, and the rat will mostly go into it's burrow to die (pretty much as people goto bed when sick), so it's very unlikely that the dog has done this.

mosi

OP, how is the dog doing? You need to get the Gardai involved now. It may also be an idea to inform the landlord...perhaps the Gardai may be able to advise on what the best course of action is in that regard. A solicitor may also be able to advise on the best course of action to take. If it was me, I would be completely freaked out to have such a person living beside me.

As for all the people here, questioning the OP's account of how often the dogs bark, that is fairly irrelevant at this point. If the neighbour had a genuine problem with the dogs barking excessively, he could have spoken with the OP's family instead of roaring abuse at the dogs. If that did not work, there are channels (eg the council) to go through to address the matter. Instead he chose to throw poison in...to me it is too much of a coincidence that shortly after the threats, one of the dogs was poisoned. He sounds like an extremely unpleasant individual, there is no justification whatsoever for that type of behaviour.

Stepping Stone

the_syco wrote: »

Most rat poison takes about 12 hours to kill the rat, and the rat will mostly go into it's burrow to die (pretty much as people goto bed when sick), so it's very unlikely that the dog has done this.

I suppose my badly made point is that although it is unlikely, it isn't impossible. That is to say, you couldn't absolutely rule out another source of rat poison if it went legal (if I am even making sense now).

wexie

Stepping Stone wrote: »

I suppose my badly made point is that although it is unlikely, it isn't impossible. That is to say, you couldn't absolutely rule out another source of rat poison if it went legal (if I am even making sense now).

You can't also absolutely rule out that the rat poison fell from the cargohold of a passing plane....

I get what you're getting at in that it's unwise to go flinging around accusations (to the neighbours). But I would very strongly suggest taking this up with the gards.

I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor and it would seem to be by far the most logical and plausible explanation that the neighbours are involved. And I'd be incredibly surprised if the gards didn't share that opinion.